Bruno Gollnisch

Bruno Gollnisch (2014)

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Bruno Gollnisch (born January 28, 1950 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) is a French politician . He was a high-ranking member of the right-wing extremist Front National party , from 1996 to 2005 its general secretary and from 2007 to 2011 deputy party chairman. Gollnisch was a member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 2019 and chairman of the Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS) group from January to November 2007 . In addition, Gollnisch was Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Lyon III from 1981 to 2012 .

biography

Bruno Gollnisch's family comes from the east of France. According to his own statements, his ancestors include the physiologist Marie Jean Pierre Flourens , the former French foreign minister Émile Flourens and the politician Gustave Flourens .

academic career

After graduating from the Baccalauréat in 1967, he first studied law at the University of Paris X Nanterre . He was secretary of the conservative student association Fédération nationale des étudiants de France (FNEF) and rejected the student protests in May 1968 . In 1970 he obtained his license en droit . With the aim of becoming a diplomat, Gollnisch then studied Japanese and Malay at the Institut national des langues et civilizations orientales (Langues O) in Paris . From 1971 to 1973 he did military service in the Navy , to which he then remained attached as a reserve officer. This was followed by a degree in international relations at the Institut d'études politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris.

With a scholarship from the French Foreign Ministry, he completed a research stay on Japanese law at the University of Kyoto and received his doctorate in international law at the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) in 1978 . He then taught as a lecturer in Japanese law at the Université Paris II and the Langues O. Gollnisch was admitted to the bar in 1980. After his license to teach ( agrégation ) in public law, he became Maître de conférences (lecturer) at the University of Metz in the same year .

In 1981 he was appointed Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at the University of Lyon III "Jean Moulin", where he taught until 2005. From 1982 to 1986 he was director of the Unité de formation et de recherche (UFR), which corresponds to the position of dean. After his remarks on the Holocaust in 2004 (see below), the Disciplinary Committee of the University Council suspended him for five years in March 2005, cutting his salary by half. In 2008 the Conseil d'État rejected his complaint against this sanction . After the suspension had expired, Gollnisch resumed teaching in September 2011, but finally ended his university career a year later.

Political career

Party offices

During his studies he met the chairman of the Front National (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen . In the spring of 1984 Gollnisch became secretary of the FN in the Rhône department and in the following years organized campaigns for European, cantonal and parliamentary elections. Gollnisch has been a member of the party's Central Committee and Politburo since 1986. From 1994 to 1996 he held the post of deputy party chairman, from 1996 to 2005 he was general secretary of the FN. On November 22, 1999, he was also appointed general representative (délégué général) of the FN. He was in the party hierarchy on the second level behind the then chairman Jean-Marie Le Pen. In this position, he led the election campaign for Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 2002 presidential election, in which he reached the second ballot for the first time.

In 2009 Gollnisch and Le Pen were the driving force behind the founding of the Alliance of European National Movements (AEMN). Gollnisch became chairman of the European party , which includes the Hungarian Jobbik and the British British National Party . In 2012 the AEMN was recognized by the European Parliament and has received party funding since then . At the end of 2013, Gollnisch ended his membership in the AEMN under pressure from the new National Front Chairperson Marine Le Pen.

Up until the election of Le Pen's daughter Marine , Gollnisch was another promising candidate to succeed Jean-Marie Le Pen in the FN. The election of Gollnisch was mainly supported by right-wing Catholic and anti-Semitic circles, to whom Marine Le Pen did not seem radical enough. At the party congress in Tours in January 2011, Gollnisch stood against Marine Le Pen, but lost with 32.35% of the delegate's votes. He then renounced the position of first deputy chair that had been offered to him and withdrew from the party executive committee.

Electoral offices

Bruno Gollnisch was elected to the following political offices:

• 1986–1988: Member of the Assemblée nationale for the Rhône department
• 1986-2015: Member of the Regional Council of the Region Rhone-Alpes
• 1989–2019: Member of the European Parliament
• 1995–2014: Member of the Lyon Municipal Council

In the European Parliament, Gollnisch was non-attached to the founding of the Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty group, but was a member of numerous committees, including the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Election Review and Questions of Immunity.

From 2004 to 2019, Gollnisch was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs , from 2009 to 2019 he was a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism, and from 1999 to 2019 he was delegate for relations with Japan. Despite his differences with party leader Marine Le Pen, he was re-elected from the National Front in 2014. For the European elections in 2019 , he joined - after six legislative sessions in the European Parliament - not more.

Public perception

Gollnisch is seen by the French and German media as the leading head of the extreme right in France and their “intellectual figurehead”.

In August 2005, Gollnisch attracted attention at a FN party event with his statement that anti-racism was “intellectual AIDS”.

Criminal proceedings on suspicion of Holocaust denial

Because of right-wing extremist incidents at the Jean Moulin University in Lyon, where Gollnisch also taught, the French government set up a commission of inquiry in 2004, headed by the historian Henry Rousso , to investigate these incidents. Shortly after the investigation report was published, Gollnisch sharply attacked Rousso at a press conference in October 2004, denying his neutrality because he was a Jew.

Shortly afterwards he claimed, among other things:

“I'm not denying the existence of the concentration camps, but as for the number of deaths, historians could argue about them. As for the existence of gas chambers, historians have to decide. "

These statements aroused public protests and criminal proceedings were initiated against Gollnisch for denial of the Holocaust . Gollnisch then claimed that these statements had been falsified by the journalists. In fact, these statements were not recorded.

In March 2005, the university's board of directors decided to expel him from the university for five years. After the European Parliament had decided to lift Gollnisch's immunity on December 13th , he was suspended on January 18, 2007, a few days after the founding of the ITS faction in the European Parliament, to three months imprisonment, suspended, and a fine of 5000 € and sentenced to € 55,000 in damages including interest. The judgment was overturned on June 23, 2009 by the Court of Cassation.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gollnisch's biography on his website
2. ↑ Lucie Blanchard: Bruno Gollnisch met fin à sa carrière universitaire. In: Lyon Capitale , October 12, 2012.
3. ↑ http://www.rtl.fr/actu/politique/fn-jean-marie-le-pen-obeit-a-sa-fille-et-quitte-le-parti-pan-europeen-7766551739
4. ↑ http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2010/06/30/01002-20100630ARTFIG00455-au-fn-la-guerre-de-succession-fait-rage-sur-le-web.php Le Figaro, 1 July 2010
5. ^ Website of the European Parliament
6. ^ Gollnisch devant ses pairs L'Humanité , March 2, 2005
7. ^ Party conference of the right-wing extremist Front National: Behind Jean-Marie Le Pen two crown princes are waiting for their hour Die Zeit , 15/1997
8. ↑ ^{a b} Academic honors for Auschwitz deniers Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 15, 2004
9. ^ Gollnisch joue la montre , L'Humanité, September 10, 2005
10. ↑ Ce que risque Gollnisch ( Memento of the original dated November 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , L'Express , April 8, 2004 
11. ↑ Lyon III demande la suspension de Bruno Gollnisch ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Le Nouvel Observateur , October 13, 2004 
12. ↑ Gollnisch Viré de cours , L'Humanité , 7 March 2005
13. ^ Report on the motion for the protection of immunity and privileges by Bruno Gollnisch , (2005/2072 (IMM)) , result of the vote on this after a plenary debate
14. ^ Gollnisch condamné à 3 mois de prison avec sursis pour des propos sur les chambres à gaz , LeMonde.fr, January 18, 2007
15. ↑ Contestation de crimes contre l'humanité: Gollnisch blanchi par la Cour de cassation ( Memento of the original dated February 24, 2011) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Le Nouvel Observateur, June 24, 2009 

Web links

Commons : Bruno Gollnisch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Bruno Gollnisch website (in French)
• Entry on Bruno Gollnisch in the Members' database of the European Parliament
• VoteWatch.eu: Bruno Gollnisch's voting behavior in the European Parliament (in English)