François Asselineau

He ran for president in 2017, taking 0.92%. The UPR campaigns for leaving the European Union, the euro and NATO. He is named in a race as a candidate in the 2027 presidential election.

Career

Asselineau worked as an inspector general of finance with posts in the ministries of economy and finance, tourism and foreign affairs in the 1990s and 2000s. He was a Paris city councillor for the 19th arrondissement from 2001 to 2008 and held posts in Rally for France and the UMP before founding the UPR on 25 March 2007. He failed to gather the 500 sponsorships needed in 2012 (17 obtained) and 2022, and took 0.92% of the first round in 2017, ninth place.

Positions

Asselineau places himself outside the left-right division. He advocates French withdrawal from the European Union, the eurozone and NATO, a position often called Frexit.

Controversies

In 2020 two former UPR collaborators complained of sexual harassment and assault. He was placed under investigation in 2021 and an investigating judge dismissed the case in December 2024. The prosecutor appealed, and on 7 April 2026 the Paris appeals court's investigation chamber lifted the dismissal and ordered him tried before the Paris criminal court for sexual harassment and sexual assault against one collaborator and attempted sexual assault against another, all with abuse of authority. No trial date was set at the time of reporting, and he is presumed innocent; his lawyer declined to comment in May 2026, according to info.fr.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · info.fr

Photo: Union Populaire Républicaine, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons (cropped)