Alfred Muller

Alfred Muller (23 December 1940 – 13 November 2020), was a French politician who served as a member of the

Biography

Alfred Muller was born on 23 December 1940 in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin. In 1971 he became non-denominational left-wing (divers gauche) alderman for sports and culture in Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin), then was elected mayor in 1977 and became soon afterwards member of the Socialist Party (PS). A follower of Michel Rocard's party wing, he was president of the Bas-Rhin PS-linked Federation of Socialists and republican elected officials from 1982 to 1985. He was successfully re-elected as mayor in 1983.^[1]

He unsuccessfully took part in the 1981 legislative election in the Bas-Rhin's 4th constituency. In protest against the selection of Grenoble and not of Schiltigheim for the building of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, also because he had not been selected as a candidate on the PS list for the next - proportional - 1986 legislative election, he quit the party in 1985. He founded the next year a splinter party, the Alsatian Democracy Movement (MDA) and presented his own list for these elections, getting 26,173 votes (5.98%) and no seat. Two years later, he was the substitute for Catherine Trautmann, PS candidate in the National Assembly's Bas-Rhin's 2nd constituency. Their ticket lost in the runoff by a small margin (49.7%).

In January 1992, Alfred Muller publicly declined to be head of the center-left Presidential Majority (during the presidency of François Mitterrand) list for the regional elections in Bas-Rhin, arguing that the PS refused to withdraw its candidate from a simultaneous cantonal election to let the MDA candidate win it.^[2]

He was however endorsed by the PS for the 1993 legislative election, was elected then, but beaten at the next one in 1997.^[1] When elected at the National Assembly, he was a member of the group République et liberté, composed of the Left Radicals, the Chevènement's MDC, and other independents, presided over by arch-Conservative Jean Royer.

He was re-elected as mayor in 1989, 1995 and 2001, but retired in 2008. His MDA designated successor, Jean-Marie Kutner, also affiliated with a newly founded splinter party from the PS, Modern Left, was endorsed by the right-wing UMP, but was beaten by a PS list at the 2008 municipal elections. Kutner won the next 2014 elections as the head of a united right-wing list.^[3]

Alfred Muller was also elected as

As a mayor, he endorsed Jean-Pierre Chevènement for the 2002 presidential election.

Muller died on 13 November 2020 at the age of 79.^[4]

References