Veil, Simone (1927– )

French centrist politician, the first woman to hold a full cabinet post under the Fifth Republic, as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's minister for health 1974–79. A survivor of Hitler's concentration camps (where she lost both her parents and her brother), she trained for the judiciary and worked in the justice ministry prior to her appointment as a full cabinet minister. She was widely respected and popular as a politician despite the French right's hostility to her legalization of abortion in 1975. Veil chose then to develop her political career at the European level. Elected to the European Parliament (EP) 1979–93, and its first president 1979–82, she presided over the EP liberal-democratic group 1982–93 before returning as French minister for health, urban, and social affairs under Edouard Balladur 1993–95. She was appointed to the Constitutional Council in February 1998.