François de Grossouvre was a French politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 charged in 1981 by newly-elected president François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

 with overseeing national security and other sensitive matters, in particular those concerning Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

, Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

, Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

, the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

 countries, Pakistan and the two Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

s. He was also in charge of the French branch of Gladio

Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...

, NATO's stay-behind

Stay-behind

In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...

 paramilitary secret armies during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

.

He was found dead with gunshot wounds at the Élysée Palace

Élysée Palace

The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....

, the French President's official residence. The official verdict was suicide.

Biography

François de Grossouvre was born in an aristocratic family, the descendant of Jean-François Durand, lord of Grossouvre (1735–1832). His father, a banker, died in 1923 in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 where he resided. François de Grossouvre would keep affective ties to Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 thereafter. He then studied with the Jesuits in France and studied medicine.

During World War II, François de Grossouvre was posted as auxiliary physician in a regiment of Moroccan tirailleurs, and then joined the ski troops in the Vercors

Vercors

Vercors is an upland district in the south-east of France:* Vercors Caves, a set of long caves* Vercors Plateau, a range of mountains and plateaus in the department of Isère, French Alps* Vercors Regional Natural Park, a protected area of southeastern France...

 region. There he met Captain Bousquet, who created one of the first units of the Organisation de résistance de l'armée

Organisation de résistance de l'armée

The Organisation de résistance de l'armée, O.R.A. was a French paramilitary resistance organisation during the Second World War...

 (ORA). He then returned to Lyon, where he received his doctorate in 1942. Afterward, he became doctor of the 11th regiment of Cuirassier

Cuirassier

Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...

s, headed by Colonel Lormeau.

Grossouvre then became a member of Joseph Darnand

Joseph Darnand

Joseph Darnand was a French soldier and later a leader of the Vichy French collaborators with Nazi Germany....

's Service d'ordre légionnaire

Service d'ordre légionnaire

The Service d'ordre légionnaire was a collaborationist militia created by Joseph Darnand, a far right veteran from the First World War...

 (SOL), a Vichyst militia. He left it in 1943 to fight in the Vercors, joining the Maquis

Maquis (World War II)

The Maquis were the predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance. Initially they were composed of men who had escaped into the mountains to avoid conscription into Vichy France's Service du travail obligatoire to provide forced labour for Germany...

 of the Chartreuse, near Grenoble

Grenoble

Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...

 (code-name "Clober"). After the Liberation, it was found that he had in fact infiltrated the SOL on behalf of ORA.

Grossouvre was then recruited in 1950 by the French SDECE intelligence agency to replace Gilbert Union, official in Lyon and who had worked with the military agency BCRA

Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action

The Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action , commonly referred as the BCRA was the World War II-era forerunner of the SDECE, the French intelligence service...

, and became leader of Arc-en-Ciel, the regional branch of Gladio (Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

 region), NATO's stay-behind anti-communist organizations during the Cold War, under the code-name "Monsieur Leduc". According to former SDECE agent Louis Mouchon, "His business, the A. Berger et Cie Sugar company, offered ample opportunities to stage fronts. He really had excellent contacts." According to The Economist

The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

's obituary,
"He was recruited into the French espionage service and helped to organise Gladio, an American backed plan to create an armed resistance movement in Western Europe against a Russian invasion."

Created by Colonel Fourcaud, in liaison with the US National Security Council

United States National Security Council

The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

, and then by Grossouvre, this network allegedly used the SAC

Service d'Action Civique

The SAC , officially created in January 1960, was a Gaullist militia founded by Jacques Foccart, Charles de Gaulle's chief adviser for African matters, and Pierre Debizet, a former Resistant and official director of the group...

 Gaullist militia and the DPS, the National Front's currently dissolved militia. The DPS was created along with Jacques Foccart

Jacques Foccart

Jacques Foccart was a chief adviser for the government of France on African policy as well as the co-founder of the Gaullist Service d'Action Civique in 1959 with Charles Pasqua, which specialized in covert operations in Africa.From 1960 to 1974, he was the President of France's chief of staff...

, after the 1982 dissolution of the SAC, and allegedly provided mercenaries for activities in the former French colonies in Africa.

He met Pierre Mendès France during the war, on a bomber

Bomber

A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...

. Mendès France would later introduce him to François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

.

Industrial activities

In 1943 he married Claudette Berger, daughter of an industrialist, Antoiner Berger, and had six children. Grossouvre managed his family-in-law's companies Le Bon sucre (1944–63) and A. Berger et Cie (1949–63), and then founded the Générale Sucrière sugar company. Along with Italian collaborators, businessman Gilbert Beaujolin and the American Alexandre Patty, he succeeded in obtaining an exclusive production licence for Coca Cola and building the first factory of this type in France. Distribution was by the Société parisienne de boissons gazeuses and the Glacières de Paris, both subsidiaries of Pastis Pernod

Besides this industrial activity, François de Grossouvre was counsellor for foreign trade of France (1952–67) and vice-president of the Chambre de commerce franco-sarroise (1955–62). He invested some capital in the 1953 creation of L'Express

L'Express (France)

L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...

 magazine, and started a friendship with Françoise Giroud

Françoise Giroud

Françoise Giroud, born France Gourdji was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician.-Biography:...

 and Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber

Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber

Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, often referred to as JJSS was a French journalist and politician. He co-founded L'Express in 1953 with Françoise Giroud, and then went on to become president of the Radical Party in 1971...

. In the 1970s he became the largest shareholder of La Montagne and the Journal du Centre regional dailies.

Relations with François Mitterrand

Grossouvre became a friend of Mitterrand during a trip to China in 1959, and participated in the Convention des institutions républicaines (CIR), a party created by Mitterrand in 1964, and dissolved at the 1971 Epinay Congress

Epinay Congress

The Epinay Congress was the third national congress of the French Socialist Party , which took place on 11, 12 and 13 June 1971, in the town of Épinay-sur-Seine, in the northern suburbs of Paris...

 of the Socialist Party (PS). He was part of the triumvirate which presided the Fédération de la Gauche Démocrate Socialiste (FGDS) party directed by Mitterrand, who entrusted him, among other things, with the negotiations with the Communist Party

French Communist Party

The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...

 (PCF). In 1974, Grossouvre became the godfather

Godparent

A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...

 of Mazarine Pingeot

Mazarine Pingeot

Mazarine Marie Pingeot , who changed her name to Mazarine Marie Pingeot-Mitterrand in 2005, is a writer, journalist and professor.-Life:...

, Mitterrand's daughter, whose existence was kept secret until the 1990s.

Grossouvre participated in all of Mitterrand's campaigns, starting with the 1965

French presidential election, 1965

The 1965 French presidential election was the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage of the Fifth Republic. It was also the first presidential election by direct universal suffrage since the Second Republic in 1848. It was won by incumbent president Charles de Gaulle who resigned...

 with the CIR, to the election of 1988 (and 1974

French presidential election, 1974

Presidential elections were held in :France in 1974, following the death of President Georges Pompidou. They went to a second round, and were won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing by a margin of 1.6%...

 as well as 1981

French presidential election, 1981

The French presidential election of 1981 took place on 10 May 1981, giving the presidency of France to François Mitterrand, the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic....

). He followed Mitterrand to the Elysée Palace

Élysée Palace

The Élysée Palace is the official residence of the President of the French Republic, containing his office, and is where the Council of Ministers meets. It is located near the Champs-Élysées in Paris....

 in 1981, was appointed in June chargé de mission (operations manager) and then conseiller du président (counsellor of the president) of President Mitterrand, who entrusted him with security and other sensitive matters, in particular related to Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Gabon, the Gulf countries, Pakistan and the two Koreas. He travelled a lot, in particular to Arab countries where he worked in the arms trade. His relations with Gemayel

Gemayel

Gemayel is the name of a prominent Maronite family based in Bikfaya, Lebanon. Transliterated Arabic is Jamail.Prominent members include:* Philip Gemayel, Maronite patriarch from 1795 to 1796...

 and Syrian president Hafez el Assad enabled him to assist in the negotiations for French hostages in the mid-1980s.

Grossouvre combined these functions with the presidency of the Comité des chasses présidentielles (Committee of Presidential Hunts), in charge of the hunting grounds of the presidency. He held this post until his death, and used the grounds for informal meetings.

According to Le Figaro

Le Figaro

Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...

, the decision to sink the Rainbow Warrior

Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior

The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique, was an operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure , carried out on July 10, 1985...

 on July 10, 1985 was taken at a June meeting at the Elysée Palace, attended by Charles Hernu

Charles Hernu

Charles Hernu was a French socialist politician, most notably serving as Minister of Defence from 1981 to 1985, until forced to resign over the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.-Biography:In 1946, Hernu studied at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium where he...

, Minister of Defence, Admiral Lacoste and François de Grossouvre

In July 1985, he officially ended his functions as adviser to the president, and worked as an international counsellor for arms-trader Marcel Dassault

Marcel Dassault

Marcel Dassault, born Marcel Bloch was a French aircraft industrialist.-Biography:Dassault was born in Paris. After graduating from the lycée Condorcet, Breguet School and Supaero, he invented a type of aircraft propeller used by the French army during World War I and founded the Société des...

 (1986-86). He nevertheless kept his office at the Elysée, his flat on the Quai Branly, a secretary and bodyguards from the GIGN, with the corresponding budget, although he began to distance himself from Mitterrand (and increasingly opposed Gilles Ménage, another advisor of the President). Grossouvre was nicknamed by some "L'Homme de l'ombre" (The Man of the Shadows).

Death

Grossouvre allegedly committed suicide on April 7, 1994, although some, such as Captain Paul Barril

Paul Barril

Paul Barril is a former officer of the French Gendarmerie Nationale. He authored several books about his military career, touching sensitive political subjects of the Mitterrand era.Barril was a gendarme until 1995...

, claimed that he was murdered. He was discovered dead, two bullets in his head, in his office at the Elysée — several hours after the assassination of Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana

Juvénal Habyarimana

Juvénal Habyarimana was the third President of the Republic of Rwanda, the post he held longer than any other president to date, from 1973 until 1994. During his 20-year rule he favored his own ethnic group, the Hutus, and supported the Hutu majority in neighboring Burundi against the Tutsi...

. Barril, who worked in Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

, presented himself in his book Guerres secrètes à l'Élysée (Secret Wars in the Elysée) as an "intime" of Grossouvre.

According to interim Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda

Jean Kambanda

Jean Kambanda was the Prime Minister in the caretaker government of Rwanda from the start of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide...

's confession to the ICTR, President Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga , commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997...

 of neighboring Zaire

Zaire

The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...

, (now DRC) had warned Juvenal Habyarimana

Juvénal Habyarimana

Juvénal Habyarimana was the third President of the Republic of Rwanda, the post he held longer than any other president to date, from 1973 until 1994. During his 20-year rule he favored his own ethnic group, the Hutus, and supported the Hutu majority in neighboring Burundi against the Tutsi...

 not to go to Dar-es-Salaam on April 6, the day before his assassination. Mobutu said this warning had come from a very senior official in the Elysée Palace in Paris. There was a link between this warning, said Mobutu, and the subsequent suicide in the Elysée of de Grossouvre.

The "hurt friend" of Mitterrand according to Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

 daily, Grossouvre voluntarily gave evidence to a judge investigating the case of Roger-Patrice Pelat, a businessman who reportedly financed many of Mitterrand's political campaigns and who was facing charges of insider trading when he died of natural causes in 1989.

Grossouvres's funeral took place on April 11, 1994 at Saint-Pierre de Moulins (Allier

Allier

Allier is a department in central France named after the river Allier.- History :Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.In 1940, the government of Marshal...

) church. Among the 400 persons assembled were president François Mitterrand, former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel, diplomatic representatives from Morocco and Pakistan, and former socialist ministers Pierre Joxe

Pierre Joxe

Pierre Joxe is a former French Socialist politician and has been a member of the Constitutional Council of France since 2001....

, Louis Mexandeau

Louis Mexandeau

Louis Mexandeau is a French politician. He served as Minister of the Postal Services from 1981 to 1986 under François Mitterand, and as Secretary for Veteran Affairs from 1991 to 1993.-Biography:...

 and René Souchon

René Souchon

René Souchon is the regional president of the French region of Auvergne. He was first elected in 2006. He is a member of the Socialist Party.-References:...

.

External links

• Archives of Le Figaro
  Le Figaro
  Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...