Jean-Pierre Chevènement

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Jean-Pierre Chevènement (born 9 March 1939 in Belfort) is a French politician.

The Chevènement family is from Swiss origin, and their original name, Schwennemann[1],was francised to Chevènement by the 18th century.

Chevènement's political positions may be described as left-wing and somewhat nationalist, which he describes as "republican". He is a eurosceptic. He is mayor of Belfort since 1983 and he was deputy from 1973 to 2002.

Senior civil servant, he joined the French Section of Workers' International (Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière or SFIO) and founded the Center of Socialist Studies, Research and Education (Centre d'études, de recherche et d'éducation socialistes or CERES). This one was the left-wing of the SFIO and promoted the alliance with the Communist Party.

In 1969, the SFIO is replaced by the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste or PS). Two years later, the CERES supported the conquest of the party by François Mitterrand. It took a major part in the elaboration of the socialist project for the 1981 elections.

Minister of Research and Industry from 1981 to 1983, he resigned because he did not agree with the change of economic policy decided by President Mitterrand in order to stay in the European Monetary System. However, he came back in the cabinet as Minister of National Education from 1984 to 1986.

Minister of Defense from 1988 to 1991, he resigned in due to his opposition to the Gulf War. Then, he voted against the Maastricht Treaty whereas Mitterrand and the PS led campaign for the "yes". In 1993, he left the PS and founded a new political party: the Citizens' Movement (Mouvement des citoyens or MDC).

In 1997, he became Minister of Interior but resigned for the third time in 2000 because of his opposition to the conciliatory policy of Prime minister Lionel Jospin with the Corse nationalists. He was the author of this sentence: "a minister shut his mouth or resign".

He was candidate at the 2002 presidential election. He presented like the leader of the "republicans" against the "only thought" of the "Chirac/Jospin duo". He created the Republican Pole, which gathered leftwing and rightwing politicians. He obtained 5% of votes.

Finally, the Republican Pole split and Chevènement created the Citizen and Republican Movement (Mouvement républicain et citoyen or MRC), which claimed to be a leftwing party.

On 2 September 1998, Chevènement underwent surgery to his gall bladder at the Val-de-Grâce military teaching hospital in Paris. He then had a grave accident due to allergy to the anesthetic: he went into a coma for 8 days, could leave the hospital only on October 22, and could not work in his ministry for 4 months. He then described himself as a "miracle of the Republic", thus the sometimes nickname of "Republican miracle".

In 2004, he established association for Foundation "Res Publica" which has the ambition of promoting 'republican model' (le modèle républicain) and making clear a long term political vision. Chevènement maintains, though, that Res Publica is not a foundation of a political party.

On 6 November 2006, Chevènement announced he would campaign again for the French presidency in the 2007 election.

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