Dominique de Villepin
Encyclopedia : D : DO : DOM : Dominique de Villepin
| This article may not conform to the [Neutral point of view>neutral point of view] policy. A Wikipedian has [POV checknominated this article] to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the [14 November, 1953 in Rabat, Morocco) simply known as Dominique de Villepin (/dominik də vilpɛ̃/ — [listen] ([Media helphelp]·[info]), is a French diplomat and politician. He is Prime Minister of France, having served in that capacity since 31 May, 2005. A career diplomat, Villepin rose through the ranks of the French right as one of Jacques Chirac's protégés. He came into the international spotlight as Foreign Minister, with his opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and recently with his . He is married to Marie-Laure Le Guay, and they have three children, Marie, Arthur, and Victoire. He has written poetry, a book about poetry, and several historical and political essays.
Contents
LifeVillepin was born in Rabat, Morocco and raised in Latin America -- in Venezuela, among other places there. His lyrical texts and passion for France won him awards in 2001 for his book about the last 100 days of Napoleon's rule, entitled "Les Cent-jours, ou L'esprit de sacrifice" (see Bibliography, below). OriginsAlthough it is widely believed that the particle "de" in a French name is a sign of nobility, most French names with such a particle in fact are not noble. The Galouzeau de Villepin family name is among these: the Galouzeau, a non-noble family originally from the Yonne département, added "de Villepin" to their name in the early 18th century, through the marriage of a Galouzeau ancestor with a woman from the de Villepin family of Lorraine. However, Villepin often is said to belong to the "Republican aristocracy", of families whose members graduate from the grandes écoles and go on to become high-ranking civil servants. Villepin's great-grandfather was a colonel in the French army, his grandfather was a board member for several companies, and his father Xavier de Villepin, now retired, was a diplomat and a member of the French Senate. CareerDiplomatVillepin studied at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) and went on to the École nationale d'administration, France's highly selective post-graduate school which trains its top civil servants. Villepin also holds degrees in law and literature from the universities of Paris II Panthéon-Assas and Paris X Nanterre. At the end of his studies, Villepin entered a career in diplomacy. His assignments were:
PoliticianVillepin was introduced to Jacques Chirac in the early 1980s and became one of his advisers on foreign policy. In 1993 he became chief of staff (directeur de cabinet) of Alain Juppé, then Foreign Minister in Édouard Balladur's cabinet, and Chirac's political heir apparent. Villepin then became director of Chirac's successful 1995 presidential campaign and was rewarded with the key job of Secretary-General of the Élysée Palace during his first term as President of the Republic (1995 - 2002). He advised the president to hold an early general election in 1997, while the French National Assembly was overwhelmingly dominated by the president's party. This was a risky gamble, and Chirac's party went on to lose the elections. Villepin offered Chirac his resignation afterwards, but was turned down. This increased the perception among many politicians on the right that Villepin was aloof and had no experience or understanding of grassroots politics, and owed his enviable position only to being Chirac's protégé. Villepin has an uneasy relationship with the members of his own political side. He has in the past made a number of demeaning remarks on members of parliament from his own party. In addition, his mutual distaste for Nicolas Sarkozy, head of the UMP Union for a Popular Movement majority party, is well-known. Foreign Minister
He was appointed Foreign Minister by Chirac in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin at the beginning of his second term in 2002. During the crisis in Haiti, Villepin once again showed himself to be a resolute decision-maker, obtaining the backing of the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his bid to solve the crisis by ousting Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power. Villepin's most famous assignment as Chirac's Foreign Minister was opposing the U.S. plan to invade Iraq, making France look like the leader in a coalition of countries such as Germany, Belgium, Russia and China that opposed the invasion. The speech he gave to the United Nations to block a second resolution allowing the use of force against Saddam Hussein's regime is regarded by some as an historic moment, receiving loud applause. Interior MinisterDuring the cabinet reshuffle that made Nicolas Sarkozy Finance Minister, Villepin was appointed to replace him as Interior Minister on 31 March, 2004. It was at this point that the rumours of Villepin being a favourite to replace the unpopular Jean-Pierre Raffarin as Prime Minister became insistent, as his combined experience of foreign affairs and home policy made him a most qualified candidate. It was also this assignment which highlighted the differences in views between Villepin and Sarkozy. The main struggle at home for the interior ministers under Prime Minister Raffarin was the question of crime, especially in the poor suburbs of Paris and other big cities. On radical Islam, another hot issue, Villepin favoured a tougher approach than Sarkozy. His actions against radical Islam included mandatory courses for Muslim clerics, notably in the French language (a third of them do not speak it), in moderate Muslim theology and in French secularism: laïcité, Republican principles and the law. While Sarkozy created the French Council of the Muslim Faith, an official body which is now dominated by radicals, Villepin would have preferred a "Muslim foundation," in which mosque-based representatives would be balanced by secular and moderate Muslims. He also cracked down on radical Muslim clerics, causing an uproar when he tried to expel Abdelkader Bouziane, an imam who taught that adulterous women could be whipped or stoned. When the decision to expel him was overturned by the courts, Villepin pushed a change of the law through Parliament, and Bouziane was sent home. Prime MinisterWith Alain Juppé barred from holding political office following a conviction for illegal party financing through a fake jobs plan, President Chirac is said to have turned his eye on Villepin as a possible successor, should he himself decide not to enter the 2007 presidential contest. However, Nicolas Sarkozy would probably be in a better position to secure the endorsement of the centre-right UMP party; a bitter rivalry is thus said to exist between Sarkozy and Villepin. On 29 May, 2005, French voters in the referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe turned down the proposed document by a wide margin. This was generally regarded as a rebuke to Chirac and his government. Two days later, Raffarin resigned and Chirac appointed Villepin as Prime Minister of France.
On the 28th of March, between one and three million people demonstrated across France. The protests were accompanied by some violence and 800 people were arrested, 500 of them in Paris. The Prime Minister refused to withdraw the CPE but called for negotiations on adapting it. The demonstrators for the most part called for the complete withdrawal of the CPE. Villepin suffered a humiliating political defeat on April 10, 2006 when President Chirac publicly announced to the nation that the law pushed by the Prime Minister would in fact be scrapped. Enacted only one week before, the scrapping of the law represented a "great victory" for the student and labor unions opposed to Villepin's labor market reforms, according to the BBC. On June 20, 2006, during the questions to government in the National Assembly, Dominique de Villepin accused head of the Socialist Party François Hollande of cowardice. [link] Hollande had questioned the Prime Minister about the recent "insider trading" scandal involving the aerospace company EADS and executive Noël Forgeard. This triggered an incident in the Assembly, with Socialist deputies converging on the government benches and being stopped by the Assembly ushers. Hollande demanded apologies and the resignation of the Prime Minister [link]; the next day, Dominique de Villepin apologized. This event resulted in criticism even from Villepin's own UMP party, with UMP parliamentarians including Assembly vice-president Yves Bur suggesting that president Chirac should "take his responsibilities" (appoint another Prime Minister) [link]. Villepin has never held elected office; the French Constitution allows the president to appoint unelected ministers. This is a political liability for him, because the opposition periodically accuses him of being out of touch with the realities of the ordinary citizens. He is also reported to despise elected officials, calling members of Parliament connards (an insult) [link]. Villepin is not the first "unelected" prime minister, even in the relatively short history of the Fifth Republic: notable predecessors include Georges Pompidou, who was a banker before being called to office, and Raymond Barre, who had a previous career as a professor and appointed official, and started an elected career only after being Prime minister. Presidential bidTalk increasingly is turning, in France, to Villepin's probable candidacy in the next Presidential election, in 2007, when President Chirac is expected to retire. Chirac's absence for ill health at the recent UN summit provided a "place in the sun", for Villepin as his substitute there, raising protest cries of "dynasty" from their opponents: for instance, editor Jean-Marie Colombani of Le Monde, on 13 September, 2005, wrote
It has often been criticized that Villepin was never elected to office. He received all his political posisitions via Chirac. Furthermore he has lost support after it became apparent that he most probably masterminded a campaign to smear Sarkozy. Villepin's approval ratings suffered during the sustained public campaign against the new law. According to a poll of the BBC, more than 45% of the French public have stated they would like Villepin to resign as Prime Minister. [[Citing sources citation needed]] Villepin's first cabinetIn an address to the nation, Chirac has declared that the new cabinet's top priority would be to curb the unemployment level, which consistently hovers above 10%, calling for a "national mobilization" to that effect. Villepin's cabinet is marked by its small membership (for France), and its hierarchical unity: all members have the rank of minister, and there are no secretaries of State, the lowest cabinet member rank. The aim of this decision is for the cabinet to form a close-knit and more efficient team to combat unemployment. One of the main promises of Jean-Pierre Raffarin as he became Prime Minister was to spur growth and that "the end of President Chirac's term would be marked by a drop of the unemployment." The French economy is growing sluggishly and a significant drop in unemployment is yet to be seen. Villepin's aim is therefore to restore the French people's trust in their government, an achievement for which he has publicly set himself a deadline of a hundred days from the appointment of cabinet. Another issue is the European Constitution which appears condemned after its rejection by France and the Netherlands in referenda, and the shelving of the planned referendum in the United Kingdom, Poland and other countries. Some have speculated that Villepin, with his diplomatic experience and the prestige associated with the job of Prime Minister, would negotiate a new treaty with the European Union, while Sarkozy would run the country at home. However, what happened is that Villepin, formerly considered elitist and out-of-touch with the people, obtained favorable reviews from the press and temporarily increased popularity in polls. In particular, he was increasingly cited as a possible presidential contender for 2007, while Nicolas Sarkozy has publicly stated that he himself gave considerable attention to that election. While there are obvious tensions between partisans of both men, Villepin and Sarkozy have so far avoided any open division. Villepin has declared that lowering unemployment was the number one objective of his government (which, was also the case of other prime ministers before him, to no avail). He, as well as the UMP party, believe that France's workforce rules are too rigid and discourage employment, and that some liberalizing reforms are necessary in order to "correct" the French social model. On 2 August, 2005, he issued ordinances establishing a new kind of work contract (called CNE) for small enterprises, with fewer guarantees than ordinary contracts. Ordinances are legislative decisions that the executive takes in areas normally devoted to Parliament, after obtaining Parliament's authorization; they are normally reserved for urgent action, or for uncontroversial technical legislation. While Villepin's measures would surely have been approved by his wide UMP majority in Parliament, the use of ordinances was criticized by the opposition. Villepin justified the use of this procedure by the need to act fast, especially when Parliament was going on its summer recess. On 16 January, 2006 he announced a similar kind of work contract (called Contrat première embauche, or CPE) for young people (under 26). The parliament approved on 8 February. Subsequently students started to protest. This wave of protest eventually forced the government to give in. Although the law on the CPE is formally still valid, the government promised to hinder its application and initiated a new legal initiative which will abolish the key points of the CPE. During the protests, Villepin was widely perceived as stubborn and arrogant. As a consequence, his popularity rates went down rapidly and he is no longer regarded as a serious candidate for the presidential elections next year. Another major issue in Villepin's government is the state of the national budget. France runs high deficits, which run afoul of the rules set in the EU Maastricht Treaty. Villepin's margin of maneuver in that respect is extremely slim. Villepin is currently embroiled in a scandal (called Clearstream [link]) involving accusations of phony bank accounts and charges of trying to sabotage the campaign of rival right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2007 French presidential election. Membership
Bibliography: works written by Villepin himself
Bibliography: general
Quotes
See also
Wikinews has news related to:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[}}}}}] at NNDB
|- style="text-align: center;"
|- style="text-align: center;"
|- style="text-align: center;"
|- style="text-align: center;"
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating. |