Correspondent in West Africa from 1962 to 1985, he was then elected, then re -elected senator of the French abroad. He died on July 18, at the age of 90 years.
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Former world correspondent in Africa and former senator elected by the French abroad, Pierre Biarnès died in Vaison-la-Romaine (Vaucluse), on July 18, at the age of 90 years.
Born January 17, 1932 in Tulette in Drôme, this winemaker’s son undertook law studies. A graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, he moved to Senegal where he became deputy secretary general of the Dakar Chamber of Commerce in 1959. Two years later, he became director of the African publishing company. This one publishes in particular the weekly The African Monitor of Commerce and Industry and the monthly Revue Française d’études African Political Studies, considered a reference in postcolonial French-speaking Africa. The editor-in-chief of this review, Philippe Decraene, who is also head of the Africa section to the world, does not take long to hire him on a daily basis as corresponding in West and Equatorial Africa.
Based in Dakar, Pierre Barniès travels to French -speaking Africa, from Mauritania to Gabon, most often combining his reports for Le Monde and his activities for the African publishing company. Freelands with special status, not a member of the company of editors, he is often considered the voice of the daily life by African presidents, of which he has his ear. Ignoring the manufacturing constraints of the newspaper, productive correspondent, he sometimes takes the cups operated in his long shipments, often coded for African use.
But he is a loyal colleague and a caring host for special editorial staff. His Dakar house is open to them, with the welcome of his wife, Monique, author of a book on Senegalese cuisine. His confidences sometimes serve for articles signed by others than him.
twice senator
In 1982, Pierre Biarnès entered the Superior Council of the French abroad, an advisory body that became assembly in 2004. Partly thanks to a Masonic affiliation of which he does not make mystery, he uses this advice as a springboard For his election as a senator of the French established outside of France, on the list of the Democratic Association of the French from abroad, located on the left, in September 1989. A political ambition which led him to leave Le Monde in 1985 .
re -elected in September 1998, he then lived in Paris. This regular at the Senate restaurant likes to show the author of these lines the variety of his parliamentary relationships, beyond political differences. At the end of this second mandate, he was a member of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee, considered a close friend of Jean-Pierre Chevènement.
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