Dominique de Villepin

Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin (born November 14, 1953; generally known as Dominique de Villepin; ) is
a French civil servant and politician.

General secretary of the Élysée Palace during Jacques Chirac's first term as president of France (1995-2002), he became famous for advising the president to hold an early general election, while the French National Assembly was overwhelmingly dominated by the president's party, which lost the elections. He thus became very unpopular among many officials on the French right and former MPs because of this unfortunate advice.

Villepin himself has never held elected office.

Appointed minister of foreign affairs by Chirac at the beginning of its second term in 2002, he got into the international spotlight with his lyrical style in opposing some U.S policies, notably the War in Iraq.

He was appointed interior minister on March 31 2004 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin after serving as foreign minister from May 7, 2002.

With Chirac's heir-in-waiting, former Prime Minister Alain Juppé, barred from holding political office for 10 years (2004-2008) on the grounds of corruption, President Chirac is said to have turned his eye on de 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 have the endorsement of the UMP party; a bitter rivalry is thus said to exist between Sarkozy and Villepin.

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 a priori 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])

Bibliography

2001 : "Les Cent-Jours ou l'esprit de sacrifice" (ed. Perrin) about the end of Napoleon, won the prize of the Fondation Napoléon.

2002 : "Le cri de la gargouille" (ed. Albin Michel)

2003 : "Éloge des voleurs de feu" (ed. NRF-Gallimard)

2003 : Preface of "Vers un nouveau monde ?" (ed. Stanley Hoffmann)

2003 : Preface of "Aventuriers du monde 1866-1914 : Les grands explorateurs français au temps des premiers photographes" collective work

2004 : Le requin et la mouette
Melville House published in the US a selection of speeches by Dominique de Villepin as foreign minister (May 2002 to March 2004), under the title Towards a New World.

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