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French politician

Jean Pierre Chevènement (ʒɑ̃ pjɛʁ ʃəvɛnmɑ̃; born 9 March 1939) is a French politician who served as a minister in the 1980s and 1990s best known for his candidacy in the 2002 French presidential election. After serving as mayor of Belfort, he was elected to the Senate for the Territoire de Belfort in 2008. As a cofounder of the PS and founder of the Republican and Citizen Movement (MRC), he is a significant figure of the French left.

The Chevènement family is of Swiss origin, with their original name, Schwennemann, having been gallicized to Chevènement in the 18th century. He was born in Belfort near the Swiss border, speaks German, and studied in Vienna.

Chevènement's idiosyncratic left wing nationalism has led to comparison with the late British politician Peter Shore. He describes his Eurosceptic and Gaullist position as "republican". He has said that "a minister has to keep his mouth shut; if he wants to open it, he resigns". However, he returned to the cabinet as Minister of National Education from 1984 to 1986. Appointed Minister of Defence in 1988, he served until 1991, when he resigned due to his opposition to the Gulf War. In 1993 he left the PS and founded a new political party: the Citizens' Movement (Mouvement des citoyens or MDC). Chevènement and the MDC participated in the formation of the Plural Left coalition. When it won the 1997 legislative election he became Minister of the Interior in the government of Lionel Jospin. On 2 September 1998, Chevènement underwent surgery on his gall bladder. He then had a severe allergic reaction to the anesthetic, causing him to lapse into a coma for 8 days. He began to recover, leaving the hospital on 22 October, but he could not work in his ministry for another four months. As a result of this episode he gained the nickname "the miracle of the republic". He won 5% of the vote. Many Socialists blamed Chevènement for the elimination of Lionel Jospin in the first round of the presidential race. Consequently, at the June 2002 legislative election, the PS invested a candidate against him in the Belfort constituency. In this, he was defeated by the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) candidate and lost his parliamentary seat.

Finally, the Republican Pole split and Chevènement created the Citizen and Republican Movement (Mouvement républicain et citoyen or MRC), which described itself as a left wing party. He reconciled with the PS when, after raising the possibility of a new presidential candidacy, he renounced this to support Ségolène Royal's candidacy in the 2007 presidential election. In spite of the PS support, he failed to retake his parliamentary seat at the 2007 legislative election. He announced that he would not stand as a candidate for another term as Mayor of Belfort. In 2004 he established the Foundation "Res Publica", which aims to promote the 'republican model' (le modèle républicain) and to define a long term political vision. Chevènement states, however, that Res Publica is not a political party. In the Senate election held on 21 September 2008, Chevènement was elected as a Senator from the Territory of Belfort, defeating his opponent, Socialist candidate Yves Ackerman. In June 2014, he announced that he will not stand at the 2014 Senate election. He tried to be candidate for the presidential election of 2012.

Jean Pierre Chevènement is a souverainist and patriotic left wing politician, a kind of left wing gaullist. In consequences, he is opposed to European federalism because of a possible disappearance of nations and the creation of a non democratic construction led by non elected technocrats. He calls for a transformation of the single currency (Euro) into a common currency, allowing countries to adapt and control their economies, but also allowing EU to have a single voice in the world. Indeed, he has criticized the bad influence of a strong currency on other countries of Europe such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. In office he defended the "French status" in NATO: i. e. outside the integrated military command. He opposed rejoining it in 2009. He defends a strict separation of church and state in addition to his vision of a harmonious nation state, being against communitarianism and for cultural assimilation.