François Autain

François Autain (16 June 1935 – 21 December 2019) was a French politician. Over his career, he was a member of the Communist, Republican, and Citizen Group and a member of the Left Party, prior to which he was a member of the Citizen and Republican Movement but also the PS and the PSU.

He was a member of the Senate of France, representing the Loire-Atlantique department from 1983 to 2011 and a deputy in the National Assembly from 1978 to 1981. From 1981 to 1983, he served as a secretary of state in the governments of Pierre Mauroy in the Ministry of Solidarity and Heath and the Ministry of Defense.

Biography François Autain was born on 16 June 1935 in the commune of Luché-sur-Brioux in the Deux-Sèvres department. He studied medicine in Nantes and became active in the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France during the Algerian War. He became a general practitioner in Bouguenais, a commune near Nantes. In 1968, he joined the Unified Socialist Party.

In 1971, he was elected as mayor of Bouguenais, a position that he held until 1993. He joined the Socialist Party in 1975 and won election to the National Assembly in the 1978 French legislative election. As a physician, he focused on health issues in the Assembly. He later left the Citizen and Republican Movement and joined the Left Party formed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

He did not stand as a candidate for re-election in 2011.