![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)
Michel Rocard, left, the prime minister of France, in 1990 with President Francois Mitterrand, his longtime political rival.
Daniel Janin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images; thumbnail: Bikas Das/Associated Press, 2007
Michel Rocard
Died on July 2, 2016 at age 85
Mr. Rocard, as France’s prime minister from 1988 to 1991, embodied a pragmatic, market-friendly element in the Socialist Party, but his reformist zeal encountered powerful countercurrents on the left.
Notable Deaths 2016
Remembering Muhammad Ali, Prince, Patty Duke, Edward Albee, Pat Summitt, Gene Wilder, Phyllis Schlafly, David Bowie, Elie Wiesel, Shimon Peres, Nancy Reagan, Arnold Palmer, Harper Lee and others who died this year.