Alexandre Léontieff

Alexandre Léontieff (October 20, 1948 – March 2, 2009) was a French politician and the President of French Polynesia from 1987 to 1991.

Biography

Personal life Léontieff was born on October 20, 1948, at Teahupo'o, Tahiti, near the world famous surfing location. The plane's wreckage and passengers have never been found.

Gatson Flosse left his post in the French government in 1988 and returned to French Polynesia. Flosse became the main opposition leader in the Assembly during Léontieff's four-year presidency.

Flosse's Tahoera'a Huiraatira political party defeated Léontieff's governing coalition in the 1991 legislative elections on March 17, 1991. Léontieff left office on April 4, 1991, and was succeeded by Flosse.

Post-presidency Léontieff returned to political office in 1996 when he won a seat in the Assembly of French Polynesia. The time he was elected as a member of Oscar Temaru's Tavini Huiraatira, a pro-independence political party.

A Paris Criminal Court convicted Léontieff of corruption in three separate cases in 1997. He sentenced to two years in prison in 1999, following a series of appeals.

Gaston Flosse and Alexandre Léontieff reconciled their past personal and political differences in 2001, amazing political observers and French Polynesian analysts. Flosse rewarded Léontieff by naming him as a manager of an investment company charged with welfare housing. Flosse further resurrected Léontieff's career and reputation by appointing him the head of Caisse de Prevoyance Sociale (CPS), French Polynesia's welfare office, in 2004. He remained the director of the CPS until his death in 2009, despite numerous changes in presidential administrations between 2004 and 2009.

Death Alexandre Léontieff died of a heart attack on March 2, 2009, at the age of 60. His was laid in state in the main hall of the Assembly of French Polynesia and buried on March 4, 2009, at the Uranie Cemetery in Tahiti.

The current President of French Polynesia Oscar Temaru quoted the 1947 Nobel Prize winning French author André Gide in tribute to Léontieff, "Good workers always have the feeling they could work harder."