Life and Political Career
Pasqua was born in Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes and has a degree in Law. From 1952 to 1971 he worked for Ricard, a producer of alcoholic beverages (most notably pastis), starting as a salesman.
In 1947, he helped create the section of the Gaullist Party RPF movement for the Alpes-Maritimes.
With Jacques Foccart, he helped create the Service d'Action Civique (SAC) in 1959 to counter the terrorist actions of the OAS during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962). The SAC would be charged with the underground actions of the Gaullist movement and participated in the organization of the 30 May 1968 Gaullist counter-demonstration; it was officially dissolved by President Mitterrand in 1982, after the "Auriol massacre" on the night of 18 July 1981 (the five members of the Auriol commando were condemned on 1 May 1985 to sentences between 15 years of prison and life-sentences; however, the mastermind behind inspector Massié's murder was never identified).
Charles Pasqua was first elected deputy of the UDR Gaullist party in 1968, ten years after having founded the Service d'Action Civique (SAC) organisation.
From 1968 to 1973, he was deputy to the French National Assembly for the Hauts-de-Seine département for the UDR party, of which he was a leading member from 1974 to 1976. He helped Jacques Chirac to take the lead of the party and participated in its transformation into the Rally for the Republic (RPR). Counsellor of Jacques Chirac alongside Marie-France Garaud, he was in charge of the organisation of Chirac's campaign for the 1981 presidential election, won by the candidate of the Socialist Party (PS), François Mitterrand (1981–1995). As such, he is considered to be Chirac's mentor in politics.
From 1981 to 1986 he was senator for the Hauts-de-Seine, then president of the RPR group in the Senate.
From 1986 to 1988 he was Interior Minister (in charge of law enforcement). The left-wing opposition claimed, in vain, his resignation after the murder of Malik Oussekine by police, during the demonstration of young against the Devaquet law. He incarnated the "hard wing" of the Neo-Gaullist party, and tried to stop the flight of the RPR voters towards the National Front.
After Chirac's defeat at the 1988 presidential election, he criticized the abandonment of the Gaullist doctrine and the so moderate positions of the RPR. In 1990, he allied with Philippe Séguin and disputed Chirac's leadership. In 1992, he called a vote against the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty.
He became Interior Minister again from 1993 to 1995, and supported the candidacy of Edouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election. He is mostly remembered for having pushed a series of anti-immigration laws (lois Pasqua), and for his declaration "we will terrorize the terrorists." He expelled CIA agents on charges of economic espionage.
Pasqua distanced himself in 1998 from RPR and Jacques Chirac, arguing that Chirac was not a true heir of Gaullism. He then headed the Rally for France (RPF), a sovereignist (Eurosceptic) party, for a while in association with Philippe de Villiers. At the 1999 European Parliament election, their list got ahead of the RPR list. President of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine from 1988 to 2004, he broke with de Villiers after his success at these elections, arriving second after the Socialist Party.
In 2002 he ran for president, but dropped out after allegedly failing to obtain the 500 representatives' signatures needed to enter the race. Many suspect that he decided not to run because Jean-Marie Le Pen's presence in the election did not leave him enough political space.
In 2003 he was elected a deputy to the European parliament. In 2004, he was elected senator by an electoral college. Many commentators alleged that this senate position, granting parliamentary immunity, was motivated by prosecution closing on Pasqua with respect to corruption practices in the Hauts-de-Seine département.
Charles Pasqua did not run in the 2007 presidential election.
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