Fabius, Laurent

Fabius, Laurent (lôräN` fäbyüs`), 1946– French politician. After graduating from the École National d'Administration, he became an auditor at the Council of State and has been a Socialist National Assembly deputy since 1978. He became (1984) minister of industry and research and, from 1984 to 1986, was President François Mitterrand's premier. After two years out of government, he lost a party leadership fight to Pierre Mauroy in 1988 but later (1992–93) held the post. In 1995 he became president of the Socialist bloc in the National Assembly; he was president of the National Assembly from 1988 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2000. He was finance minister under Premier Lionel Jospin from 2000 to 2002. Fabius broke with his party in 2005 and campaigned against the proposed European Union constitution, which French voters rejected. In 2006 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Socialist party's nomination for the presidency.