Dominique de Villepin
Dominique (Marie, François, René) Galouzeau de Villepin (born November 14, 1953 in Rabat, Morocco), simply known as Dominique de Villepin (ⓘ), is a French diplomat and politician. He is the current Prime Minister of France, serving in that capacity since May 31, 2005.
Villepin got into the international spotlight with his lyrical style in opposing some U.S. policies as Foreign Minister, most notably the War in Iraq.
Villepin has never held elected office, despite his three ministerial appointments.
Career
A graduate of the Ecole nationale d'administration, France's post-graduate elite school for civil service, and of the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Villepin served a brief diplomatic career, serving notably in the French embassies in Washington, D.C. and New Delhi. An aspiring poet and writer, he was renowned for his great intellectual facility. He was introduced to Jacques Chirac in the early 1980s and served as his adviser 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, but Chirac's party went on to lose the elections. Villepin offered Chirac his resignation afterwards, but was turned down. He nevertheless became very unpopular among many officials on the French right and former MPs because of this unfortunate advice.
Appointed Foreign Minister by Chirac in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin at the beginning of his second term in 2002, he was later appointed Interior Minister on March 31 2004 during a cabinet reshuffle.
With Alain Juppé barred from holding political office following a conviction of corruption, 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 May 29 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.
Villepin's first cabinet
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According to the French Constitution, the President of the Republic appoints ministers on a proposition by the Prime Minister; in practice, both will have a say in the composition, which will be announced in the following days.
Jacques Chirac announced that Nicolas Sarkozy will be part of this government with the rank of Minister of State (a honorific higher rank among ministers); it is yet unknown what his exact attributions will be, but it is rumored that he will be named Minister of the Interior, a position whose main responsibility is law enforcement.
Origins
Dominique de Villepin is the son of Xavier de Villepin, who was also a French high ranking civil servant, and is now a member of the French Senate. Dominique de Villepin was born in the then French protectorate of Morocco while his father was stationed there.
Dominique de Villepin descends from the non-aristocratic Galouzeau family, a family originally from the Yonne département. In the early 18th century, a Galouzeau ancestor added the aristocratic-sounding "de Villepin" to his name after marrying into a family of that name. At the time of writing this article, it was not possible to ascertain whether this Villepin family, native of Lorraine, was really aristocratic (a large number of French families using the aristocratic particle "de" are in fact not aristocratic). It should be noted that before the French Revolution, it was not infrequent for aristocratic families to marry a daughter with a rich commoner, a practice known as redorer son blason (literally "to re-gild one's coat of arms") frowned upon by aristocratic families less in need. This enabled the aristocratic family to recover financially through the hefty dowry usually asked from the commoner. The commoner, on the other hand, was allowed to add the aristocratic name of his bride to his own family name, and this was dearly sought. It could thus well be that the Villepin family was really aristocratic, and that the Galouzeau ancestor married his Villepin bride in order to acquire an aristocratic name.
The descendants of the couple, now known as Galouzeau de Villepin, settled in Lorraine. Dominique de Villepin's great-grandfather was a colonel in the French army. His grandfather was a board member for several companies.
Bibliography
- 2001 : Les Cent-Jours ou l'esprit de sacrifice (Perrin) about the end of Napoleon, won an award from the Fondation Napoléon.
- 2002 : Le cri de la gargouille (Albin Michel)
- 2003 : Éloge des voleurs de feu (NRF-Gallimard)
- 2003 : Preface of Vers un nouveau monde ? (Stanley Hoffmann)
- 2003 : Preface of Aventuriers du monde 1866-1914 : Les grands explorateurs français au temps des premiers photographes, a collective work.
- 2004 : Le requin et la mouette
- 2004 : Towards a New World (Melville House), a selection of speeches by Villepin as Foreign Minister.
- 2005 : L'Homme européen (with Jorge Semprún), a pamphlet in favour of the Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe.
Quote
"L'option de la guerre peut apparaître a priori la plus rapide. Mais n'oublions pas qu'après avoir gagné la guerre, il faut construire la paix." ("The option of war can appear before to be the most rapid. But let us not forget that after winning the war, peace has to be built." At the United Nations Security Council on February 14 2002, shortly before the US-led invasion of Iraq [1])
See also
