François Asselineau

François Asselineau
President of the Popular Republican Union
Assumed office
March 25, 2007
Preceded by None - Party created
Ex-Municipal councillor
for 19th arrondissement of Paris
In office
2001–2008
Personal details
Born (1957-09-14) 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
Website http://francoisasselineau.fr

François Asselineau (French pronunciation: ​[fʁɑ̃swa asəlino], born September 14, 1957 in Paris), is a French politician and an Inspector General for finances. The French media have repeatedly presented him as a little-known public figure.

Asselineau was a member of the Rally for France (RPF) and UMP[1][2] before creating his own political party the Popular Republican Union (Union Populaire Républicaine or UPR). His movement promotes France's unilateral withdrawal from the European Union, the Eurozone and NATO.

Considered a "souverainiste",[3] he is also viewed by many observers as a conspiracy theorist.[4][5][6][7] Arrêt sur images describes him as "a right wing 'énarque', bordering on the far-right".[3]

Asselineau has had a troubled relationship with the media, which he has repeatedly accused of "censorship". In his critique he includes French Wikipedia, which has considered him insufficiently noteworthy to justify a page in the encyclopedia. The activism of his supporters to try and increase media coverage of Asselineau and the UPR has been noted by several observers.[4][8]

Education

Asselineau enrolled in HEC Paris where he graduated in 1980 with the MSc in Management. He enrolled at the École nationale d'administration (promotion "Léonard de Vinci", 1985).[9]

Career

Asselineau started his career in Japan in the department of economic expansion for National Service Overseas (CSNE). Served in 1985 as inspector General in the inspection générale des Finances.

From 1989 to 1990, he was chief of mission for the National Credit. He was also president of the direction of the Society for Economical and Financial Analysis and Diagnostic (SADEF). In 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 Pierre Bérégovoy government.

From 1994 to 1995, he served as counsellor for international affairs[10] in the Ministry of Industry under the Edouard Balladur government.

In June 1995, he was named director of the office of the Ministry of Tourism. In 1996, he moved to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was in charge of economic matters for Asia, Oceania and Latin America until the dissolution of parliament by Jacques Chirac in 1997.

Political career

In 1999, François Asselineau got involved 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 autumn 2005. On July 27, 2000, he became vice-director of the general council of the Hauts-de-Seine. He was in charge of economic and international affairs. 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[11] where he worked until March 30, 2004 when Nicolas Sarkozy took over the position of Charles Pasqua.

On October 20, 2004, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Asselineau as the director of the general delegation for economic intelligence within the Minister of Economy and Finance.

In November 2006, Asselineau joined the steering committee of Rally for an Independent and Sovereign France (RIF), a party created by Paul-Marie Coûteaux,[12]

Municipal councillor

On March 19, 2001, he was 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).[13]

On December 31, 2004, Asselineau decided to join the group Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) at the Council of Paris.[14] On November 3, 2006, he decided to quit the group and seat with the non-inscrits just after Françoise de Panafieu, for whom he worked, was elected president of the council of Paris for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).[15]

In September 2007, Asselineau participated in a dissident political group named Paris Libre with several other ex-UMP members.[16] The group ran several lists against the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), and Asselineau ran a list in the 17e arrondissement de Paris against Françoise de Panafieu.[17] However, he then backtracked,[18] denouncing consequent pressure on the members of his list.[19]

Creation of the UPR

On March 25, 2007, for the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaty signature, he created the Popular Republican Union (UPR).[20]

Election results

In January 2011, Asselineau announced his intention to run for the 2012 French presidential election,[21] and confirmed this intention in December 2011.[22] However, François Asselineau was unable to garner the necessary 500 endorsements from elected polticians necessary to be on the ballot.[20][23] As such, Asselineau called for a boycott of the presidential election.

Following the Cahuzac affair and the resignation of Jérôme Cahuzac for whom Asselineau had worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance, Asselineau run for the legislative by-election in the Lot-et-Garonne's 3rd constituency with Régis Chamagne.[24] They failed to reach the second round with a score of 189 votes (0.58%).[25]

Asselineau ran for the 2014 European Parliament election as the head of the list for the Île-de-France constituency. He hoped that the UPR's agenda could rally voters disappointed by the current political system.[26][27] Asselineau complained to CSA for not having had access to mainstream media; he also claimed that the principle of equity for all candidates was actually undermined by the media, that tended to give voice to parties that were already well-known.[28] He scored 0.56% of votes cast in his constituency.[29]

Political views

François Asselineau's 'souverainiste' platform has two main targets, the European Union and the United States.[7][30] He insists that France should leave the Eurozone,[31] the European Union, and NATO.[7][30] According to Asselineau, the EU and NATO "as seen from Washington...are the political and military side of the same coin, that of the enthrallment of the European continent to their 'buffer zone' so as to surround and contain the Russian continental power".[31] He says the process leading to European unification was launched solely upon orders from the American government.

Asselineau denies he is a "eurosceptic", preferring to call himself a "euro-atheist".[32] Invited by Russian television networks (Russia Today, ProRussia.tv...), he says he supports Iran in its fight against "euro-atlantism".[7]

Asselineau claims to derive his ideas from the 1944 Conseil national de la Résistance, which he claimed as his source of inspiration for his presidential program in 2012, including "re-nationalisations" and "quality public services".[33][34] Asselineau does not say what should be done about "the major national issues such as nuclear power in France, the French debt crisis or the decisions to be made about immigration, [which] should be addressed through referenda",[31] "once France has left the European Union".[8]

Conspiracy theory

The large regional daily newspaper Sud-Ouest notes that Rudy Reichstadt, the coordinator of Conspiracy Watch, summed up François Asselineau's ideas as being "utter souverainisme interlaced with anti-US conspiracy theories ("un souverainisme intégral mâtiné de théorie du complot anti-américaine") and views his strategy as aiming at launching a kind of "take-over bid" on this part of the public enticed by the conspiracist approach of such websites as Réseau Voltaire or Alain Soral's Égalité et Réconciliation.[6]

The collaborative website Le Plus of the magazine L'Obs observed in an article edited by their news director Louise Pothier that Asselineau's videoconferences on YouTube include the claim that "the National Front was created by François Mitterrand and Jacques Attali and is financed by the Central Intelligence Agency" and that "the Carlyle group, which is the financial arm of the Moonies and is controlled by the Bush family, also funds the weekly Marianne which supports the National Front" (frontiste, contradicting their reputation of left-wingers[35]) "and which is in charge of promoting Marine Le Pen in order to ruin the Popular Republican Union's political discourse".[7] Asselineau also told the regional newspaper Nord Éclair that the National Front's intention of leaving the European Union is part of the "smokescreen" of the French political theatre and that they do not want to do so at all.[34]

See also

References

-In French unless otherwise stated-

  1. ↑ http://www.leparisien.fr/paris/demission-remarquee-a-l-ump-03-10-2006-2007382302.php
  2. ↑ http://www.leparisien.fr/paris/ca-bouge-a-l-ump-31-12-2004-2005580066.php
  3. 1 2 Laure Daussy (24 September 2014). "Mais qui est François Asselineau, le souverainiste sans page Wikipedia ?". Arrêt sur images. Retrieved September 29, 2014. (registration required (help)).
  4. 1 2 Laurent de Boissieu. "Réponse ouverte à François Asselineau". ipolitique.fr. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  5. ↑ Robin D'Angelo (20 November 2013). "Sciences-po Aix ouvre son grand amphi au conspirationniste François Asselineau". StreetPress.com. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  6. 1 2 Législative partielle: la galaxie des micro-partis, Sud-Ouest, 11 June 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Pothier, Louise; Merlin, Caroline (23 September 2014). "ONPC. En invitant François Asselineau, Laurent Ruquier cède à la pression des complotistes". Le Plus de L'Obs (Collaborative website of the magazine).
  8. 1 2 François Asselineau de l'Union Populaire Républicaine - On n'est pas couché, 20 septembre 2014 on YouTube, at 2 mn 10" (accessed on October 4th, 2014).
  9. ↑ Arrêté du 31 mai 1985 PORTANT AFFECTATION AUX CARRIERES DES ELEVES DE LA PROMOTION 1983-1985 DE L'ECOLE NATIONALE D'ADMINISTRATION AYANT TERMINE LEUR SCOLARITE AU MOIS DE MAI 1985 (ELEVES ISSUS DES CONCOURS EXTERNE ET INTERNE)
  10. ↑ "Cabinet de Gérard Longuet Philippe ANDRES François ASSELINEAU". 16566. Les Échos. 21 January 1994. p. 39. Archived from the original on 6 September 2011.
  11. ↑ "Le Monde.fr: Archives". Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  12. ↑ Laurent de Boissieu. "Rassemblement pour l'indépendance et la souveraineté de la France (RIF)". France-Politique.fr. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  13. ↑ "Ile-de-France. Paris (75)". Libération. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  14. ↑ "Ça bouge à l'UMP". leparisien.fr. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  15. ↑ "Démission remarquée à l'UMP". leparisien.fr. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  16. ↑ Marie-Anne GAIRAUD (September 27, 2007). "Bertrand Delanoë bientôt dans les arrondissements...". Le Parisien.
  17. ↑ "24 Heures". Le Parisien. December 22, 2007.
  18. ↑ Benoît Hasse (February 26, 2008). "Panafieu malmenée dans son fief du XVIIe". Le Parisien.
  19. ↑ "XVIIe: un divers droite jette l'éponge". Le Figaro. Agence France-Presse. February 21, 2008.
  20. 1 2 Béatrice Houchard. "Trois recalés de la présidentielle en repêchage à Villeneuve-sur-Lot". Le Figaro. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  21. ↑ Choq FM, "L'autre monde" (The other world), 14 February 2011
  22. ↑ "Asselineau candidat à la présidentielle". leparisien.fr. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  23. ↑ "Les candidats à la présidentielle: Jacques Cheminade a ses 500 signatures, pas Corinne Lepage". La Tribune. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  24. ↑ J.Sch. "Villeneuve-sur-lot. L'UPR entre conquête et résistance". LaDépêche.fr. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  25. ↑ "Ville de Villeneuve sur Lot - Election législative partielle: les résultats définitifs". Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  26. ↑ "Asselineau (UPR) à Ermont". leparisien.fr. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  27. ↑ "Essonne: Les 'petits partis' partent à l’assaut des européennes". Essonne Info - Site d'actualité et d'information en Essonne. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  28. ↑ Yann Thompson, Européennes: la galère des petits candidats, France Télévisions, 21 May 2014
  29. ↑ "European Parliament Election Results". francetv info. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  30. 1 2 François Asselineau fact sheet on the website of the French version of the magazine Slate, retrieved on 12 March 2012
  31. 1 2 3 Asselineau, François (24 March 2012). Les monnaies plurinationales finissent toujours par exploser. Interview with Florentin Piffard. Causeur. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  32. ↑ Qui est François Asselineau ?, Valeurs actuelles, September 22d, 2014
  33. ↑ Ève Moulinier, Le Dauphiné libéré, 12 February 2012, page 4
  34. 1 2 Dupont, Isabelle (29 February 2012). "Un 'petit candidat' contre la grande Europe". Nord Éclair.
  35. ↑ In April 2012, a survey on voting intentions of Marianne journalists showed that 40% favoured François Hollande and 31.7% Jean-Luc Mélenchon : "Pour qui votent les journalistes de "Marianne"" [Who Marianne journalists vote for]. Marianne (in French). 14 April 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2015 – via Laure Daussy, Arrêt sur images, 17 April 2012.

External links

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