Catherine Tasca (; born 13 December 1941 in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

) is a French politician 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 th ...

(PS) who served as a member of the

Senate of France The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

, representing the

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organiza ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Early life and education

Tasca is the daughter of Angelo Tasca, a former founding member of the

Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

from

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. After expulsion from the Communist Party, Angelo went into exile in France. There he joined the

French Section of the Workers' International The French Section of the Workers' International (, SFIO) was a major socialist political party in France which was founded in 1905 and succeeded in 1969 by the present Socialist Party. The SFIO was founded in 1905 as the French representativ ...

in 1934 and later supported the

Vichy regime Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

in the 1940s.

Political career

During her time as Minister of Culture, Tasca caused a diplomatic incident when she announced that she would boycott the opening of the Paris Book Fair in 2002, which celebrated Italy, if it were attended by Italy's right-wing prime minister,

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

. Ahead of the Socialist Party's 2011 primaries, Tasca endorsed

Martine Aubry Martine Louise Marie Aubry (; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (''Parti Socialiste'', or PS) from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the Mayor (France), M ...

as the party's candidate for the 2012 presidential election.Primaire PS: 39 sénateurs PS apportent leur soutien à Aubry
''

Le Point ''Le Point'' () is a French weekly political and conservative news magazine published in Paris. It is one of the three major French news magazines. ''Le Point'' was founded in 1972 by former journalists of ''L'Express'' and quickly rose to be ...

'', 13 October 2011.

References

External links

Page on the Senate website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tasca, Catherine 1941 births Living people Politicians from Lyon French people of Italian descent People of Piedmontese descent Unified Socialist Party (France) politicians Socialist Party (France) politicians Ministers of culture of France Deputies of the 11th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic French senators of the Fifth Republic Senators of Yvelines Women members of the National Assembly (France) Women members of the Senate (France) Women government ministers of France Sciences Po alumni École nationale d'administration alumni 20th-century French women politicians 21st-century French women politicians