Jean-Pierre Chevènement

Jean-Pierre Chevènement (2014)

Jean-Pierre Chevènement (born March 9, 1939 in Belfort ) is a French politician ( PS , MDC , MRC ). He held various ministerial posts: 1981–1983 for research and technology, 1984–1986 for education, 1988–1991 for defense , 1997–2000 for home affairs . From 1983 to 1997 and 2001 to 2007 he was Mayor of Belfort.

Chevènement was chairman of the left-wing sovereignist party Mouvement des citoyens from 1993 to 2001 , and chairman of the successor party Mouvement républicain et citoyen from 2008 to 2010 . He ran unsuccessfully for the presidential election in 2002 . From 2008 to 2014 he was a member of the French Senate .

biography

Chevènement is the son of a teacher. The Chevènement family comes from Switzerland . The German name - Schwennemann - became the current family name in the 18th century. As a student he won the Concours General in the subjects of geography and Greek. He graduated from the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), which he graduated in 1960.

He then did his military service as an officer student at the Cherchell Military Academy in Algeria, then France. During the Algerian war he witnessed the uprising of the Organization de l'armée secrète (OAS) and the massacre of Saint-Denis-du-Sig . In 1962 he was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Prefect of Oran , where the National Liberation Army (Armée de libération nationale, ALN) carried out a massacre of European descent ( Pieds-Noirs ) and pro-French Algerians on July 5, 1962 .

From 1963 to 1965 he attended the elite École nationale d'administration (ENA) in Paris . There he was a classmate of Lionel Jospin and Jacques Toubon . From 1965 to 1973 he was a civil servant in the Ministry of Economics and Finance.

Chevènement married the painter and sculptor Nisa Grunberg in 1970. The couple have two sons. In 1998 he had to undergo gallbladder surgery, with complications so severe that he was in a coma for several days.

Political career

From 1964 Chevènement was a member of the French Socialists ( SFIO ) and in 1971 played a key role in their re-establishment as Parti socialiste (PS). From 1971 to 1981 and 1986 to 1993 he was a member of the Executive Office and Steering Committee of the PS. Within the socialist party he represented the Center d'études, de recherches et d'éducation socialiste (CERES), a think tank of the left wing of the party. In the 1973 parliamentary election, Chevènement was elected to the French National Assembly for the first time as a member of the second constituency of Belfort . From 1974 to 1988 he was also a member of the Regional Council of Franche-Comté , from September 1981 to April 1982 he was President of the Regional Council.

Minister under Mitterrand

After the election of his party colleagues François Mitterrand as president Chevènement was on 22 May 1981 for the Minister of Research and Technology with the rank of minister of state in the cabinet of Pierre Mauroy appointed. In June 1982, the responsibility of his ministry was expanded to include industry. In March 1983 he was elected mayor of his hometown Belfort, on March 22, 1983 he resigned as minister. On July 19, 1984 he succeeded Alain Savary as Minister for National Education in the government of Laurent Fabius and held the office until March 20, 1986. From 1986 Chevènement was the leader of the left-wing "Socialisme et République" within the PS.

From May 13, 1988 to January 29, 1991 he was French Defense Minister in the Michel Rocard government . He opposed France's participation in the Second Gulf War and for this reason resigned as minister.

Mouvement des citoyens and interior minister

In June 1991 Chevènement was re-elected to the National Assembly, and in 1993 and 1997 he was re-elected. Unlike the PS leadership, Chevènement spoke out against the EU Treaty of Maastricht and founded the left-sovereign Mouvement des citoyens (MDC; Movement of the Citizens) in 1992 . In the following year he resigned from the PS and converted the MDC into an independent party, and he was elected to chair it. In the European elections in 1994 he was the top candidate on the list L'Autre politique , which united the EU-skeptical left, but with 2.5% of the vote failed to make it into the European Parliament. From 1995-2008 Chevènement was president of the community association Communauté de l'Agglomération Belfortaine to which Belfort and surrounding communities had come together.

In June 1997 he became French interior minister in the Jospin cabinet , but he resigned his mayor's office. After he had to be represented by Jean-Jack Queyranne in 1998 in the course of a serious illness , he resigned as Minister on August 29, 2000. Daniel Vaillant took over as his successor as Minister of the Interior, while Queyranne took over Vaillant's office of Minister for Relations with Parliament . In March 2001, Chevènement was re-elected Mayor of Belfort.

Presidential Candidate and Senator

Chevènement ran as a candidate in the presidential election in May 2002 . He campaigned for the "Republicans from left and right," and his prominent supporters included Régis Debray , Lucie Aubrac , Max Gallo and Jean-François Kahn . He reached sixth place with 5.3% of the vote and was eliminated in the first ballot. Chevènement's candidacy contributed to the poor performance of the PS candidate Lionel Jospin , who with 16.2% also did not reach the runoff election. For his presidential campaign, Chevènenment founded the organization Pôle républicain ("republican pole"), from which in January 2003 the party Mouvement républicain et citoyen (MRC) emerged, of which he was honorary chairman. In 2004, Chevènenment spoke out against the European Constitution . In June 2007 he resigned as Mayor of Belfort, Étienne Butzbach succeeded him.

Chevènement at the Osez le débat event (2013)

In a newspaper article in spring 2008, Chevènement advocated the establishment of a new left-wing party:

"Especially with regard to France, Chevènement is of the opinion that the defeats of the French left in the presidential elections in 1995, 2002 and 2007 were not accidental events, but the logical consequence of the lost grip of left politics with regard to the real world of life and work of the" little people ”(“ couches populaires ”). Only the "electric shock" of the founding of a large collection party could bring the left back to a majority in France. The program of this party - following the tradition of Jean Jaurès - must combine internal and international solidarity and the party must allow both "realpolitical" and "radical utopian" currents to have their say in a fruitful discussion. In the end, there must be a political project that does justice to the challenges of our time as well as the interests of the population. In view of the global financial crisis, the political left is called upon to oppose neoliberal capitalism with its vision of a "new" new deal of monetary, social and environmentally friendly policy regulations and make it the subject of international conferences. "

- Wolfgang Lieb : Create a large left-wing rallying party for a new New Deal. Summary of the most important statements of the debate essay by Jean-Pierre Chevènement that appeared in the Paris daily Le Monde on April 24, 2008; Original title "Un grand parti de gauche pour un New Deal".

However, Chevènement remained a member of his small party MRC, which he chaired from June 2008 to June 2010. From October 2008 to September 2014 he was a representative of the Territoire de Belfort in the French Senate . There he sat in the group Rassemblement démocratique et social européen (RDSE) and was deputy chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces. Chevènement renounced his previously announced candidacy for the 2012 presidential election and called for the election of François Hollandes . After Hollande's election victory, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius Chevènement was appointed special representative for relations with Russia in October 2012. He did not run again in the 2014 Senate election.

In August 2016, President Hollande appointed President of the Fondation des œuvres de l'islam de France (Foundation for the Works of Islam in France; replaced by Fondation de l'islam de France , FIF in December 2016 ). The appointment of a Christian as president of a foundation for Islam has been criticized as patronizing Muslims. In the runoff election of the 2017 presidential election , Chevènement voted for Emmanuel Macron . This confirmed Chevènment as President of the Islam Foundation (until December 2018) and as a special representative for Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Chevènment the Order of Friendship in 2017 .

Quotes

• “A minister either keeps his mouth shut or he resigns.” ( “Un ministre ça ferme sa gueule ou ça démissionne.” , On the occasion of his resignation on March 22, 1983)
• "The Home Secretary, that's the cleaning lady of the government." ( "Le ministre de l'Intérieur, c'est la femme de ménage du gouvernement." , In an interview with Le Figaro on July 5, 1998)

Sources and individual references

1. ↑ http://www.diesbach.com/sghcf/c/chevenement.html
2. ↑ "La guerre a fait de moi un homme". In: Charles , October 2017.
3. ↑ Summary in: nachdenkseiten.de (January 29, 2012)
4. ↑ Chevènement soutient Hollande. In: Le Figaro , March 13, 2012.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Jean-Pierre Chevènement. Retrieved December 26, 2015 (French). 

Web links

Commons : Jean-Pierre Chevènement  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Jean-Pierre Chevènement in the catalog of the German National Library