Simone Veil - a truly exceptional woman

Simone Veil, one of France's most loved and respected political figures, has been elected to the prestigious Académie française or French Academy.

The 81-year-old former minister was chosen on Thursday to take over the seat left vacant by a former French prime minister, Pierre Messmer, who died in August last year.

If you're looking for a woman who arguably represents many of the ideals of European integration, has been at the forefront of this country's battle for women's rights over the years and has a personal history that surely leaves nobody untouched, then read on.

Before that though a word or two of explanation about l'Académie française.

It's one of this country's oldest and most respected institutions. It's made up of 40 people known as "immortals", each of whom holds a "seat". They're elected by other members, and have the position for life.

When one dies, it's up to the other académicians to vote on a replacement.

It has no official authority, in other words no binding legal powers, but it makes recommendations on the use and composition of the French language - yes a very French institution in a sense - in an attempt to "safeguard" the country's language and culture against - in particular - the infiltration of dreaded Anglicisms into everyday life.

For every English word, there is a French one, (such as courriel for email) but it doesn't necessarily mean that Monsieur et Madame Français et Française are going to use them.

It is, if you like the standard bearer of French culture, and publishes the "official" dictionary of the French language, known "dictionnaire de l'Académie française."

Elevation to l'Académie is possibly the greatest honour that can be bestowed upon an individual her in France.

Now back to Veil.

She's only the fifth woman to take her seat in the 40-strong body.

As a member of the centre-right Union pour la Démocratie Française (Union for French Democracy, UDF) Veil has had a long and distinguished domestic political career, which included five years in the 1970s as the French minister of health serving under two prime ministers.

She was instrumental in pushing through reforms to make contraception more easily available to women in France, and more famously for her battle to have abortion legalised in this country in 1975.

It was a battle she led in the face of staunch oppostion, that sometimes turned into violent street demonstrations

For 14 years Veil was a member of the European parliament, where she became the first elected and first female president since its creation in the 1950s.

After stepping down from the European parliament in 1993, she returned for a two-year spell as minister of state for social affairs.

Veil also campaigned heavily for the European constitution, which has been put on hold since the Irish "no" vote earlier this year, and she raised a few political eyebrows last year, when she came out in support of Nicolas Sarkozy in his campaign to become French president.

But it's not just her political career and fight for women's rights that have endeared her to the French and led much of the media to describe her as an "exceptional" woman when reporting her election to the Academy.

Because underlying all her political and professional achievements, there is of course a much more personal history.

Veil is a survivor of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, to which she was deported at the age of 16, and where both her parents and brother were killed.

She is also the honorary president of Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.

And speaking on national radio the morning after her election to the status of "immortal", Veil made reference to her experiences during World War II to put everything into perspective.

"It's a great honour," she said. "And yes we're called 'immortal'," she added.

"But for my part, I went past the stage of possible 'immortality' a long time ago, in the sense that a part of me died in the (concentration) camp," she continued.

"So such an idea is a difficult one for me to accept. But all the rest - to take my seat in the Academy and to be surrounded by a number of people of such great quality - it is of course a great honour."

Perhaps the French president himself, best summed up what many people here think, in a statement released shortly after the news was announced in which Sarkozy paid homage " to a stateswoman who has always served the Republic and shown perpetual courage in her fight for women's right, for Europe and for Shoah."

Simone Veil - a truly exceptional woman.