| François Asselineau | |
|---|---|
| President of the Popular Republican Union | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office March 25, 2007 |
|
| Preceded by | None - Party created |
| Municipal councillor for 19th arrondissement of Paris |
|
| In office 2001–2008 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 September 1957 Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Political party | Popular Republican Union |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | HEC Paris École nationale d'administration |
| Occupation | Civil Servant Politician |
| Profession | Inspector General Business School professor |
François Asselineau (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa asəlino]; born 14 September 1957) is a French politician. He belonged to the Rally for France (RPF), before creating his own political party, Popular Republican Union, (UPR), a movement known for its patriotism and Euroscepticism.
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François Asselineau is married and has 2 children.
François Asselineau enrolled in HEC Paris where he graduated with the MSc in Management from the Grande école program in 1980. He enrolled at École nationale d'administration (ENA) where he graduated in 1985 with the second highest honors of those specialized in economics.[1]
After graduating from HEC Paris and before enrolling École nationale d'administration (ENA), François Asselineau started his career in Japan as a cooperant for National Service Overseas (CSNE). He belonged to the service for economic expansion.[2] As many of École nationale d'administration alumni, François Asselineau started his career in 1985 as inspector General in the prestigious inspection générale des Finances.
In 1989, he was chief of mission for the National Credit for 2 years. He was also president of the direction of the Society for Economical and Financial Analysis and Diagnostic (SADEF). From 1991, he became chief of mission of the Asia-Oceania office at the Direction of Foreign Economical Relation (DREE) in the Ministry of Economy and Finance under the minister Michel Sapin in the Pierre Bérégovoy government.
From January 21 to October 1994, he worked as minister-counsellor for international affairs of Gérard Longuet[3] in the Ministry of Industry, post, telecommunication and overseas commerce in the Edouard Balladur government. He kept the same position until 1995 while the minister changed to José Rossi.
On June 13, 1995, he is nominated director of the office of the Ministry of Tourism, Françoise de Panafieu, in the first government of Alain Juppé.[4] The office was under a constant budget constrain pressure by the government[5] In 1996, he moved to the ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hervé de Charette in the second government of Alain Juppé where he was in charge of Economic matters for Asia, Oceania and Latin America until the dissolution of parliament by Jacques Chirac in 1997.
In 1999, François Asselineau engaged himself in politics by becoming a member of the Rally for France (RPF), a party created by Charles Pasqua and Philippe de Villiers. He became a member of the national bureau, director of studies and spokesman of the party until fall 2005.[6] On July 27, 2000, François Asselineau became vice-director of the general council of the Hauts-de-Seine. He was in charge of the economic and international affairs.[1] On March 19, 2001, François Asselineau is elected as a member of the council of Paris in the 19e arrondissement de Paris. His list, a right-wing dissident list made with an agreement between Jean Tiberi and Charles Pasqua, was in a triangular against a Rally for the Republic (RPR) list and unified left list composed with Socialist Party (PS).[7] On May 23, 2001, Charles Pasqua nominated François Asselineau as the director of his office of the presidency of the general council of Hauts-de-Seine[8] where he worked until March 30, 2004 when Nicolas Sarkozy took over the position of Charles Pasqua.
On October 20, 2004, Nicolas Sarkozy nominated François Asselineau as the director of the general delegation for economic intelligence within its Minister of Economy. He worked in close collaboration with Alain Juillet, the responsible for economic intelligence nominated by the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin.[9] François Asselineau was openly defending an economical patriotism and criticising the institutions within the European Union that he judged too liberal.[10] On December 31, 2004, he decided to join the group Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) at the Council of Paris.[11] On November 3, 2006, he decided to quit the group and seat with the non-inscrit just after Françoise de Panafieu, for whom he worked for, was elected president of the council of Paris for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).[12]
On November 18, 2006, François Asselineau joined for three months the steering committee of Rally for an Independent and sovereign France (RIF), a party created by Paul-Marie Coûteaux.[13] On March 25, 2007, exactly 50 years after the signature of the Rome Treaty by the French government, he created the Popular Republican Union (UPR).[14] In September 2007, François Asselineau participated in a council of Paris within a dissident political group named Paris Libre with other ex-UMP members such as René Galy-Dejean, Cécile Renson, Dominique Baud and Alexandre Galdin.[15]
The group decided to conduct several lists against the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and François Asselineau decided to conduct a list in the 17e arrondissement de Paris against Françoise de Panafieu.[16] However he then gave up, denouncing consequent pressure on the members of his list.[17] This is the first time, that the mass media referred to his political group as Popular Republican Union.[18]
The UPR is defined as neither left or right but as a rally for national sovereignty by withdrawing France from the European Union, the eurozone and the NATO.
Based on American government's declassified documents revealed by The Daily Telegraph[19], Francois Asselineau believes the European Union was created by the United States intelligence services. Therefore, the European Union was not created to serve the interest of Europeans but those of the United States. He thinks that their purpose is to make France and other European nations mere vassal states. He explains that it was accomplished by handing over the President of France and National Assembly of France deputies' main functions and powers to the European Central Bank and European commission which serve the interests of the transatlantic lobbies[20].
In order to France getting back its national sovereignty, Francois Asselineau proposes the country's unilateral withdrawal from the European Union, thus de facto of the Eurozone, by the usage of TEU Article 50. Upon the withdraw from the Eurozone, he proposes to replace Euro by a new Franc with the equivalence of 1 euro for 1 franc for several weeks before proceeding to a devaluation. Then, he wants to re-empower the banque de France so that it can coin and lend without or with very low interest rate to national administrations by denunciation of the article 25 from the law n°73-7 of 3 january 1973 about the banque de France's statutes. He proposes France to get back its national defence independance by the withdrawal from the NATO. François Asselineau endeavour France to take over again its right of defending its commerce national interest at WTO that he believes is now defended by the European commission and not always in the country's best interest. He also proposes the restoration of capital, goods and person flow regulation control. Francois Asselineau proposes to revert the public services reduction and to create a national housing program[20].
In January 2011, Francois Asselineau mentioned for the first time that he will run for the 2012 French presidential election[21]. However, he said that he will announce it officially later during autumn 2011 [22].