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Simone Veil achieves immortality. |
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Thursday, 20 November 2008 |
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The 81 year old lawyer and politician has been elected at the first attempt to the ranks of the Académie Française known to the French as' les Immortels'.
She was elected with 22 of the 29 votes. She replaces former Prime Minister and Free French hero Pierre Mesmer, who died last year. She was born in 1927 and as a child she survived the Nazi death camps which took the lives of her mother, father, brother and one of her sisters. After her return from deportation she qualified as a lawyer and had a successful career as a magistrate. She was twice a minister, first under President Giscard d’Estaing in 1974 and then under François Mitterrand in 1993. She is best known for the legalisation of abortion in 1975. She was the first and highly symbolic President of the European parliament. Polls show her to be the most popular French politician. In congratulating her President Sarkozy praised her “perpetual courage”.
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