Alfred Muller (23 December 1940 – 13 November 2020), was a French politician who served as a member of the

National Assembly of France The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are know ...

from 1993 to 1997.

Biography

Alfred Muller was born on 23 December 1940 in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label= Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the ...

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lo ...

. In

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

he became non-denominational left-wing ('' divers gauche'') alderman for sports and culture in

Schiltigheim Schiltigheim (, , and sometimes by non-local speakers of French; Alsatian: ''Schelige'' ; ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The inhabitants are called ''Schilikois'' in French and ''Scheligemer'' ...

(

), then was elected mayor in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

and became soon afterwards member of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...

(PS). A follower of

Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991 during which he created the ''Revenu minimum d'ins ...

's party wing, he was president of the Bas-Rhin PS-linked Federation of Socialists and republican elected officials from 1982 to 1985. He was successfully re-elected as mayor in 1983.Léon Strauss
« Alfred Muller »
, in ''Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne'', vol. 27, p. 2752 He unsuccessfully took part in the 1981 legislative election in the Bas-Rhin's 4th constituency. In protest against the selection of

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

and not of Schiltigheim for the building of the

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France, supported by 22 countries (13 member countries: France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, ...

, also because he had not been selected as a candidate on the PS list for the next - proportional - 1986 legislative election, he quit the party in 1985. He founded the next year a splinter party, the

Alsatian Democracy Movement Alsatian may refer to: * The Alsace region of France * Alsatians (people), a person from the Alsace region of France or a speaker of the Alsatian language * Alsatian dialect, the language or dialect of the Alsace region of northeast France * Germ ...

(MDA) and presented his own list for these elections, getting 26,173 votes (5.98%) and no seat. Two years later, he was the substitute for Catherine Trautmann, PS candidate in the National Assembly's Bas-Rhin's 2nd constituency. Their ticket lost in the runoff by a small margin (49.7%). In January 1992, Alfred Muller publicly declined to be head of the center-left Presidential Majority (during the presidency of

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

) list for the regional elections in Bas-Rhin, arguing that the PS refused to withdraw its candidate from a simultaneous cantonal election to let the MDA candidate win it. He was however endorsed by the PS for the 1993 legislative election, was elected then, but beaten at the next one in 1997. When elected at the National Assembly, he was a member of the group République et liberté, composed of the Left Radicals, the Chevènement's MDC, and other independents, presided over by arch-Conservative

Jean Royer Jean Royer (31 October 1920 – 25 March 2011) was a French catholic and conservative politician, former Minister, and former Mayor of Tours. Biography Mayor of Tours Born in Nevers, Nièvre, Royer was at first a teacher. In 1958 he was elec ...

. He was re-elected as mayor in 1989, 1995 and 2001, but retired in 2008. His MDA designated successor, Jean-Marie Kutner, also affiliated with a newly founded splinter party from the PS,

Modern Left The Modern Left (french: La Gauche moderne, LGM), is a centrist political party in France founded in 2007. The party was founded following the nomination of the former Socialist Party (PS) Senator and Mayor of Mulhouse, Jean-Marie Bockel to the ...

, was endorsed by the right-wing UMP, but was beaten by a PS list at the 2008 municipal elections. Kutner won the next 2014 elections as the head of a united right-wing list. Alfred Muller was also elected as conseiller général from 1979 to 1992 for the Schiltigheim Canton, had to leave this function when he became deputy, then was elected again from 1998 until 2004 when he was beaten by an Ecologist candidate, Andrée Munchenbach. As a mayor, he endorsed Jean-Pierre Chevènement for the 2002 presidential election. Muller died on 13 November 2020 at the age of 79.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Alfred 1940 births 2020 deaths Politicians from Strasbourg Deputies of the 10th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic 21st-century French politicians