Paul Bérenger

Paul Raymond Berenger

Paul Raymond Bérenger (born March 26, 1945) is a Mauritian politician of French ancestry and former Prime Minister of Mauritius from 2003 to July 5 2005. He was the Leader of the Opposition till 3rd April 2006.

He was formerly best known as the charismatic leader and founder of the socialist Mouvement Militant Mauricien. He has been an unescapable high profile figure in Mauritian politics since 1969, when the MMM was created. He became prime minister on September 30, 2003. To date he is the only non-Hindu to become Prime Minister of Mauritius. During his term as Prime Minister (2003 - 2005), his government took some unpopular measures which he claimed were necessary for the long-term good of the country.His party lost the last General Elections due to a combination of several factors such as ineffective communication of successes, probably excessive realism and not enough opportunism, which his opponent, Navin Ramgoolam exploited. The latter conducted a successful campaign based on populist measures such as reduction of transport fares, removal of means-tested pension etc and made many popular promises to the population, and hence won the electoral battle.In the 1970s, he was perceived as a Socialist/Communist by right-wingers, but has become much more moderate since the 1980s, and has espoused free-market economics to the extent that today he is widely regarded as a socialist only in name. Before becoming Prime Minister, he was the foreign minister from 1991 to 1993 and from 1995 to 1997 and the finance minister from 2000 until 2003.

Bérenger was educated in France, and was expelled for participating in a student uprising (though doubts still persist about his alleged involvement in the May 1968 student revolt). He is married with two daughters and one son.