Obituary: Roland Dumas, suave French politician and Mitterrand ally who became embroiled in Elf scandal

Ronald Dumas was a man of exceptional charm. Photo: Getty

Telegraph Obituaries
© Telegraph.co.uk

Roland Dumas was a French lawyer and politician whose career was borne relentlessly upwards by his great friendships with Pablo Picasso and Francois Mitterrand. Ultimately, however, he was brought down by the suspicion that he considered the civilised expression of power best left to a small number of highly cultured men such as himself.

This trait was most evident during the five years from 1988 that he was foreign minister. Dumas’s appointment to the Quai d’Orsay had in itself annoyed staff there, who felt that the job ought to have gone to a ministry insider. Once in place, Dumas proceeded further to vex his colleagues by making it clear that he was intent on working not in their interests, but in those of President Mitterrand. ​