Raphaël Babet

Biography

Raphaël Babet was a Réunionese politician of the second half of the 20th century. Elected to the National Assembly after the 1946 departmentalisation, he sat in the first years of the new departmental system and took an active part in parliamentary debates on living conditions in Réunion. His speeches dealt in particular with the sugar industry, the mainstay of Réunion's economy, and with the social conditions of the island's population in the difficult post-war context.

Since the sugar industry was at the heart of Réunion's economy at the time (it employed a large share of the working population and had shaped social relations since colonisation), Babet's positions in Parliament reflect the challenges of modernising and protecting this activity within the new departmental framework. His political action belongs to the period when republican institutions were being built in Réunion, and to the tensions between keeping inherited colonial economic structures and the new demands for social equality brought by departmentalisation.

Contribution

Member of parliament for Réunion after departmentalisation; spoke in parliament on the island's economic and social conditions and on the sugar industry.

Legacy

A player in Réunion's parliamentary life in the early years of the departmental system; a representative of Réunion's interests in the National Assembly.