Dominique de Villepin

He was Foreign Minister (2002-2004), Interior Minister (2004-2005) and Prime Minister (2005-2007) under Jacques Chirac, and leads the movement Humanist France, founded in 2025. He is named as a candidate in the 2027 French presidential election.

Career

Born in Rabat in 1953, Villepin studied at Sciences Po and the École nationale d'administration and also holds degrees in law and literature. He served as secretary-general of the Élysée Palace from 1995 to 2002, then as Foreign Minister from 2002 to 2004, Interior Minister from 2004 to 2005 and Prime Minister from 2005 to 2007, all under President Jacques Chirac. Wikipedia lists his party memberships as the RPR (1977-2002), the UMP (2002-2010), République Solidaire (2010-2012) and Humanist France, which he launched on 24 June 2025.

Positions

Villepin became internationally known for opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq in a speech at the United Nations. Wikipedia describes his ideology as Gaullism, social liberalism, republicanism and humanism, on the centre-right. In an interview with parliamentary channel LCP he said he was fighting a battle for France rather than a partisan one, ruled out a right-wing primary, said republican order and social justice go beyond the left-right divide, and criticised what he called an identity temptation among other politicians.

Controversies

In the Clearstream affair, in which a forged list of names was used to implicate Nicolas Sarkozy in alleged arms-deal kickbacks, Villepin was tried for complicity in slanderous denunciation. He was acquitted at first instance in January 2010 according to Wikipedia. Prosecutors appealed, and in September 2011 the Paris appeal court confirmed his acquittal, as reported by the Gulf Times, even though prosecutors had sought a 15-month suspended sentence.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · LCP · Gulf Times

Photo: Georges Seguin ( Okki ), CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)