Raymond Barre | Ex-premier of France, 83

Raymond Barre, 83, a tough-speaking former French premier and economist who refused to bow to protesters or political alliances, has died, his family said yesterday.

Mr. Barre died at a Paris hospital, where he was being treated for heart problems, family members said.

He was prime minister of France from 1976 to '81 during a 30-year political career that also included posts as vice president of the European Commission, French economics minister, and mayor of Lyon. He made a run for president in 1988.

Highly suspicious of the media and political alliances, Mr. Barre spoke sparingly in public and kept his circle of friends small.

He never joined a political party, though he was linked to the center-right Union for French Democracy. He used that position to his advantage by playing free agent as a lawmaker in the National Assembly, often voting with the left-wing opposition to the frustration of his conservative allies.

Born in Saint-Denis on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, Mr. Barre studied at the Reunion Law School before being mobilized into the army in 1944. He was attached to an artillery unit stationed in Madagascar, but the war ended before he could ship out.

He then moved to Paris, where he studied at the Institute of Political Science and earned a doctorate in law and economics from the University of Paris in 1950.

Charles de Gaulle asked Barre to represent France at the European Commission in Brussels in 1972, where he helped form the economic policies of the future European Union. Former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing called Mr. Barre "the best economist in France." - AP