Jean Lecanuet; Politician Opposed De Gaulle

Jean Lecanuet, 72, the French politician who forced Gen. Charles De Gaulle into an embarrassing runoff in France’s 1965 presidential elections. Lecanuet, then hardly known outside his native Normandy, created a major surprise when he ran against De Gaulle as a center-right candidate. Lecanuet opposed the president’s moves to take France out of the military structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He also strongly favored European political unity, anathema to the independent-minded De Gaulle. Lecanuet introduced American-style campaign advertising to French politics, received 15.6% of the vote to 44.6% for De Gaulle and 31.7% to left-wing candidate Francois Mitterrand. Lecanuet never again reached such national prominence, although he later allied himself with Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who was elected president in 1974 and rewarded him with the Justice portfolio. In Paris on Monday of cancer.