Background

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.^[2]

Beginning in politics

Chevènement's idiosyncratic left-wing nationalism has led to comparison with the late British politician Peter Shore.^[3] He describes his Eurosceptic and Gaullist position as "republican".^[2] He was Mayor of Belfort from 1983 to 2008 and was a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1973 to 2002.

He joined the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and founded the Center for Socialist Studies, Research and Education (Centre d'études, de recherche et d'éducation socialistes or CERES). The organization constituted the left wing of the party, and promoted an alliance with the French Communist Party.

In 1969 the SFIO was superseded by the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste or PS). Two years later, CERES supported the takeover of the party by François Mitterrand. It played a major role in drawing up the Socialist plan for victory in the 1981 elections.

In governments

Chevènement was Minister of Research and Industry from 1981 to 1983, when he resigned, for the first of three times in his career. He disagreed with the change in economic policy made by President Mitterrand in order to stay in the European Monetary System.^[4] He has said that "a minister has to keep his mouth shut; if he wants to open it, he resigns".^[5] However, he returned to the cabinet as Minister of National Education from 1984 to 1986.^[6]

Appointed Minister of Defence in 1988, he served until 1991, when he resigned due to his opposition to the Gulf War.^[4] After this he opposed the Maastricht Treaty, an issue on which Mitterrand and the PS led the "yes" campaign.^[7] 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.^[8][9] He began to recover, leaving the hospital on 22 October, but he could not work in his ministry for another four months.^[10] As a result of this episode he gained the nickname "the miracle of the republic".^[4]

For the third time, Chevènement resigned from the government in 2000 because of his opposition to giving increased autonomy to Corsica and in order to prepare his candidacy to the 2002 presidential elections.^[4]

2002 presidential election

He was a candidate at the 2002 presidential election. He put himself forward as the leader of the "republicans" against what he called the "Chirac/Jospin duo". He created the Republican Pole, for more left-wing nationalists.^[11] He won 5% of the vote.^[12] Many Socialists blamed Chevènement for the elimination of Lionel Jospin in the first round of the presidential race.^[13] 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.

Citizen and Republican Movement

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.^[13] 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.

Jean-Pierre Chevènement at the Salon du livre in Paris, 23 March 2014.

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,^[1] 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.