The former French interior minister Charles Pasqua, who has died aged 88, was a totem of the French right, influential in shaping its hardline policies for more than 30 years. A resistance fighter turned henchman for General Charles de Gaulle and the power broker behind two centre-right presidents – Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy – Pasqua was best known for his tough stances on immigration, terrorism and crime.
Both the man, a blunt-speaking bruiser, and his views, based on virulent nationalism, polarised people. His devotion to his country was without question, but his deeply ingrained social conservatism and a series of allegations of pocketing public money and misuse of power earned him the nickname “the Godfather of the Hauts-de-Seine”, the area in the western suburbs of Paris where he lived and held court.
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