When he was just 23 and already an old philologist, he had to help the mother on the farm, because the father had died in an accident. The year 1974 was the year of the death of Georges Pompidou, Valery Giscard d'Estaing became president, and Francois Bayrou stood on the edge, quite unknown, quite far down, definitely very far from the center of power.
His rise to the highest circles of Paris took ten, twenty years. Bayrou is an eminently local politician in his hometown of Bearn, he goes on to become a political assistant in various Parisian cabinets, soon becomes a party chairman, becomes a minister of education, and from then on he acts again and again for all sorts of positions.
Bayrou was last smiled
Bayrou joins three times, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, as a liberal candidate for the presidential elections . But he has only been standing on the summit of his career since last week, since last Wednesday. Rarely has his power been greater than at this moment when he gives up when he gives up. When he takes a seat.
Bayrous's press conference had been expected by the political enterprise with some nervousness, not because somebody had given the eternal candidate of the liberal, rather insignificant party Mouvement Démocrate (MoDem) even the slightest chance. Actually, Bayrou was rather a little smiled, mocked.
But after the turmoil of the last few weeks, he had to do some hectic racism with Bayrous's possible vocal parts. If the MoDem boss were vain and self-willed, he would win five or six percent of the votes, although he might be able to pull Emmanuel Macron into the second , Decisive round of presidential election? Would Bayrou really like him as a candidate on his own account, the way to prepare the way for the conservative François Fillon, who, through his ugly money-money, had been struggling? These were the questions until Wednesday, 4.30 pm.
Democracy in France was damaged
Bayrou quickly made them redundant in the minutes to relieve many observers. Democracy in France, he said, and his French was as immaculate and beautiful as ever, has never been so damaged in the past 50 years.
The left as well as the right camp presented highly questionable candidates for the election. He, Bayrou, estimated the situation so gravely that he would give up his own candidacy and do everything possible to help the candidate of the "right and left", Emmanuel Macron , on his way to the Élysée Palace.
Bayrou looked and spoke as usual, serious, serious, factual. But the step can not have been easy for him. As simple and peasant as its origins may be, he has long since become accustomed to the smooth Parisian parquet, and the bright light of the headlights does not frighten him, but warms his heart. Bayrou spoke of sacrifice. Quickly, therefore, presumptions were circulating that he might have been promised posting for the case of Macron's actual choice, but that might sound like a bad slant for the moment.
More pluralism and morality in politics
The outcome of the first round of voting on 23 April will depend on a few percentage points. Bayrous support could be crucial for Macron. Above all, he has an anchorage in the province, in rural France, for which he himself does not stand.
Bayrou has long been a credible supporter of republican principles. His only condition at Macron: To provide for more plurality and more morality in politics. Listening to Bayrou in radio broadcasts or on TV can be a pleasure, because he has clear thoughts and grammar.
Bayrou is, without any irony, a "homme de lettres", a man of the word, award-winning author of many historical, literary and political books, including an excellent work on the "free king" Henri IV, which sold itself 300,000 times and Made him financially independent.
Controversial balance sheet as Minister of Education
For the same reasons, being a fine spirit with a sense of public appearances, Bayrou always enjoys mild laughter in France. He is one of the popular victims of the satirists, who mark him as an eternal loser, as a chanceless candidate, who nevertheless wants to know - in a hopeless situation - always anew. At least this top is now no longer possible, since Bayrou has taken himself out of the race.
He is still controversial to the present day as a minister of education - he was a member of several cabinets in this function in the 1990s. He is attributed to him by a successful reform of the Abitur, but his opponents accuse him of managing the decades of reforms in education policy as well as the majority of his predecessors and successors.
It is unquestionable that Bayrou does not belong to the sort of power man who knows no other life except politics. He has six children with his wife Elisabeth, even born in 1951, and despite all his commute to Paris and his many commitments in the home region, he still lives as a family man. He has invested his income as a successful book author in horse breeding and today he can call himself a gentleman over a stud of racehorses.
A source of anecdotes
As a public figure, which is Bayrou, however, this private pleasure also serves as a source for more or less amusing anecdotes, which the Parisian gossip press likes to spread in large circulation. It is said that one of Bayrous's stallions named "Présidentiable", in German about: presidential, had fallen in a race and had so badly injured that he could no longer be saved. If this is not the case, it is a good story that fits well with François Bayrou, the narrator.
The story of his career has not yet come to an end. She has experienced a late, dramatic climax these days. Further could follow.
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