Dominique de Villepin
Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin (born November 14, 1953), Dominique de Villepin for short, 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 in the French right and former MPs because of this unfortunate advice. It is worth noting in that respect that Villepin 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 American policies, notably the War in Iraq.
He was appointed Interior Minister of the Republic of France on March 31 2004 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin after being Foreign Minister (from May 7, 2002).
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 a 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 )
Bibliography
- 2001 : "Les Cent-Jours ou l'esprit de sacrifice" (ed. Perrin) about the end of Napoleon, won the prize of the stub. You can help BambooWeb by .
