Charles Hernu

Charles Hernu in January 1983

Charles Hernu (* 3. July 1923 in Quimper , Finistere region , † 17th January 1990 in Villeurbanne ) was a French politician of the Socialists .

biography

Hernu started his career in the national foreign trade center . He later became a journalist.

In 1953 he founded the Jacobin Club , a political club related to the Parti radical socialiste of Pierre Mendès France .

On January 2, 1956, he was elected in the 6th sector of the Seine (Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, Montreuil, Vincennes) as a member of the Front républicain , the list union of SFIO and radicals. He became secretary in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly . After General Charles de Gaulle returned to power, he lost his parliamentary mandate.

In 1962 he took part in the founding of the Parti socialiste unifié (PSU), then joined François Mitterrand's Parti Socialiste (PS) in 1971 and became his party's defense expert in the 1970s . In April 1974 he created le Coran , an association of reserve officers for a new army that was quickly merged with the PS Defense Commission. He became responsible for his party's defense and nuclear policy.

He was a staunch supporter of the atomic deterrent by the force de frappe and described the Soviet medium-range missile SS-20 as a threat. Hernu stood up for the NATO double decision and against the inclusion of the French nuclear weapons in the START negotiations. SDI (the US research program for space-based defense announced in 1983) rejected Hernu.

In March 1977, Hernu was elected mayor of Villeurbanne , where he also became a member of parliament in 1978.

In May 1981, after François Mitterrand's victory in the presidential election, he was appointed Minister of Defense . He held this position in the three cabinets of Mauroy (May 1981 to July 1984) and in the cabinet of Laurent Fabius (July 1984 to March 1986) until his resignation.

Rainbow Warrior Affair

On July 10, 1985, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was blown up in the port of Auckland in New Zealand by agents of the DGSE . This attack cost the Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira his life. The Rainbow Warrior scandal culminated with Hernu's resignation on September 20, 1985. Most observers agreed that he was being sacrificed as a pawn to higher authorities who were sure to know about the operation.

In 2005 the daily Le Monde published excerpts from a report from 1986 written by the former head of the DGSE, Admiral Pierre Lacoste . According to the newspaper, the admiral claimed that the French agents who planted the bombs had personally complied with Mitterrand's orders. For some unknown reason, knowing the President's implications , Jacques Chirac did not use this during the 1988 presidential campaign.

In 1996, L'Express magazine published a report that Hernu had been an agent for the Soviet secret service KGB and its satellite services for ten years .

Hernu was mayor of Villeurbanne from 1977 to 1990. The place gave its name to the metro station Charpennes - Charles Hernu, which is the first station of lines A and B in the municipality of Villeurbanne.

Web links

Commons : Charles Hernu  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Affaire Hernu: L'Express relaxé ( memento of August 4, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) of December 12, 2002, L'Express dossier on the alleged espionage activity of Hernus, in the Internet Archive at archiv.org, as of August 4, 2004, seen April 13, 2011 (French)