Jean-Marie Le Pen

Jean-Marie Le Pen (born 20 June 1928) is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National (National Front) party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than the main left candidate, Lionel Jospin. Le Pen lost in the second round to Jacques Chirac. Le Pen again ran in the 2007 French presidential election and finished fourth. His 2007 campaign, at the age of 78 years and 9 months, makes him the oldest candidate for presidential office in French history.

Le Pen focuses on immigration to France, the European Union, traditional culture, law and order and France's high rate of unemployment. He advocates immigration restrictions, the death penalty, raising incentives for homemakers, and euroscepticism. He strongly opposes same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and abortion.

Personal Life and Early Career

Le Pen was born in La Trinité-sur-Mer, a small seaside village in Brittany, the son of a fisherman but then orphaned as an adolescent (pupille de la nation, brought up by the state), when his father's boat was blown up by a mine in 1942. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and studied at the Jesuit high school François Xavier in Vannes, then at the lycée of Lorient.

Aged 16, he was turned down (because of his age) by Colonel Henri de La Vaissière (then representative of the Communist Youth) when he attempted, in November 1944, to join the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). He then entered the faculty of law in Paris, and started to sell the monarchist Action française's newspaper, "Aspects de la France", in the street. He was repeatedly convicted of assault (coups et blessures). He became president of the Association corporative des étudiants en droit, an association of law students whose main occupation was to engage in street brawls against the "Cocos" (communists). He was excluded from this organisation in 1951[why?].

After receiving his law diploma, he enlisted in the army in the Foreign Legion. He arrived in Indochina after the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu, which had been lost by France and which prompted prime minister Pierre Mendès France to put an end to the war at the Geneva Conference. Le Pen was then sent to Suez in 1956, but arrived only after the cease-fire.

Elected deputy of the French Parliament under the Poujadist banner, Le Pen voluntarily reengaged himself for two to three months in the French Foreign Legion. He was then sent to Algeria (1957) as an intelligence officer. He has been accused of having engaged in torture, but he denied it, although he admitted knowing of its use. After his time in the military, he studied political science and law at Paris II. His graduate thesis, submitted in 1971 by him and Jean-Loup Vincent, was titled Le courant anarchiste en France depuis 1945 or "The anarchist movement in France since 1945".

His marriage (29 June 1960 - 18 March 1987) to Pierrette Lalanne resulted in three daughters; these daughters have given him nine granddaughters. The break-up of the marriage was somewhat dramatic, with his ex-wife posing nude in the French edition of Playboy to ridicule him. Marie-Caroline, another of his daughters, would also break with Le Pen, following her husband to join Bruno Mégret, who split from the FN to found MNR, the rival Mouvement National Républicain (National Republican Movement). The youngest of Le Pen's daughters, Marine Le Pen, is leader of the Front National.

In 1977, Le Pen inherited a fortune from Hubert Lambert, son of the cement industrialist of the same name. Hubert Lambert was a political supporter of Le Pen, as well as being a monarchist. Lambert's will provided 30 million francs (approximatively 5 million euros) to Le Pen, as well as his castle in Montretout, Saint-Cloud (the same castle had been owned by Madame de Pompadour until 1748).

In the early 1980s, Le Pen's personal security was assured by KO International Company, a subsidiary of VHP Security, a private security firm, and an alleged front organisation for SAC, the Service d'Action Civique (Civic Action Service), a Gaullist organisation. SAC allegedly employed figures with organized crime backgrounds and from the far-right movement.

On 31 May 1991, Jean-Marie Le Pen married Jeanne-Marie Paschos ("Jany"), of Greek descent. Born in 1933, Paschos was previously married to Belgian businessman Jean Garnier.

Le Pen is (supposedly, even though no actual proof nor confirmation exist) the godfather of the third daughter of Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a comedian, political activist, and anti-zionist of French-African descent who moved from fighting against the Front National to being very close to most of its senior members and defending their freedom of speech in French media. Jean-Marie Le Pen is also godfather of Alexandre Barbera-Ivanoff, who painted his portrait in 2006.

Le Pen wears an ocular prosthetic.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Ségolène Royal

Marie-Ségolène Royal (born 22 September 1953), known as Ségolène Royal, is a French politician. She is the president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council, a former member of the National Assembly, a former government minister, and a prominent member of the French Socialist Party. The first woman in France to be nominated by a major party, she was the Socialist candidate in the 2007 French presidential election but lost to Nicolas Sarkozy on 6 May 2007.[2] In 2008, Royal narrowly lost to Martine Aubry in the Socialist Party's election for First Secretary at the Party's twenty-second national congress. On 30 November 2010, Royal announced her intentions to again seek the PS nomination for President in 2012 but she lost the Socialist Party presidential primary in 2011.

Early Life

Ségolène Royal was born in the military base of Ouakam, Dakar, French West Africa (now Senegal) on 22 September 1953, the daughter of Hélène Dehaye and Jacques Royal, a former artillery officer and aide to the mayor of Chamagne (Vosges).

Her parents had eight children in nine years: Marie-Odette, Marie-Nicole, Gérard, Marie-Ségolène, Antoine, Paul, Henri and Sigisbert.

After secondary school, Marie-Ségolène attended a local university where she graduated 2nd in her class with a degree in Economics. Her eldest sister then suggested she prepare the entrance exam to the elite Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris popularly called Sciences Po, which she attended on scholarship. There she discovered politics of class and feminism. ("Sciences Po" at the time was 85% upper-class Parisian, mostly male.) In summer 1971, she was an au pair in Dublin, Ireland. In 1972, at the age of 19, Royal sued her father because he refused to divorce her mother and pay alimony and child support to finance the children's education. She won the case after many years in court, shortly before Jacques Royal died of lung cancer in 1981. Six of the eight children had refused to see him again, Ségolène included.

Royal, like most of France's political elite, is a graduate of the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA). She was in the same class as her former partner of 30 years, François Hollande (whom she met at a party), as well as Dominique de Villepin (prime minister under Jacques Chirac). Each class year at the ENA receives a nickname to distinguish it: Royal tried to get her peers to name their class after Louise Michel, a revolutionary from the 1870s, but they chose the name "Voltaire" instead. During her time at the ENA, Royal also dropped "Marie" from her hyphenated first name because she thought it had been chosen by her father for his daughters out of a degrading and archaic view of the role of women.

Personal Life

From the late 1970s, Ségolène Royal was the private-life partner of François Hollande, former head of the French Socialist Party, whom she met at ENA. The couple had four children: law student Thomas (b. 1984), Clémence (b. 1985), Julien (b. 1987) and Flora (b. 1993). They were neither married (considering it too "bourgeois") nor bounded by a PACS (pacte civil de solidarité, which provides for a civil union between two adults, regardless of gender), contrary to the rumors. A news agency leaked news of their separation in June 2007, on the evening of the legislative election. According to the Guardian, she had asked Hollande "to move out of the house" and pursue his new love interest "which has been detailed in books and newspapers" – a reference to a much-discussed chapter by journalists explaining how Hollande was having a long-term affair with a journalist.

Royal's eldest son, Thomas Hollande, served as an adviser to her during her presidential candidacy, working on a website designed to appeal to young voters.

Her brother Antoine named their brother Gérard Royal as the agent who placed the bomb that sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. But other sources claim that this statement is exaggerated and that Gérard was part of the logistics team.

Royal's cousin Anne-Christine Royal followed the paternal side of the family and has been a candidate of the far-right Front National party at a local election in Bordeaux.

From : www.wikipedia.org

François Hollande

François Gérard Georges Hollande (born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008. He has also been a Deputy of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze's 1st Constituency since 1997, and previously represented that seat from 1988 to 1993. He was the Mayor of Tulle from 2001 to 2008, and has been the President of the General Council of Corrèze since 2008.

On 16 October 2011, Hollande was nominated to be the Socialist and Left Radical Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. His main opponent is President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Early Life and Background

Hollande was born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy to a middle-class family. His mother, Nicole Frédérique Marguerite Tribert, was a social worker (1927-2009), and his father, Georges Gustave Hollande, an ear, nose, and throat doctor, who "had once run for the extreme right in local politics". The surname "Hollande" is "believed to come from Calvinist ancestors who escaped the Netherlands in the 16th century and took the name of their old country."

Education

He attended Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle boarding school, then HEC Paris, École nationale d'administration, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He graduated from ENA in 1980. He lived in the United States in the summer of 1974 while he was a university student. Immediately after graduating, he was employed to work as a councillor in the Court of Audit.

Political career

After volunteering to work for François Mitterrand's ultimately unsuccessful campaign in the 1974 presidential election when he was a student, Hollande joined the Socialist Party five years later. He was quickly spotted by Jacques Attali, a senior adviser to Mitterrand, who arranged for Hollande to stand for election to the French National Assembly in 1981 in Corrèze against future President Jacques Chirac, who was then the Leader of the Rally for the Republic, a Neo-Gaullist party. Hollande lost to Chirac in the first round, although he would go on to become a Special Adviser to the newly-elected President Mitterrand, before serving as a staffer for Max Gallo, the government's spokesman. After becoming a Municipal Councillor for Ussel in 1983, he contested Corrèze for a second time in 1988, this time being elected to the National Assembly. Hollande lost his bid for re-election to the National Assembly in the so-called "blue wave" of the 1993 election, described as such due to the amount of seats gained by the Right at the expense of the Socialist Party.

Personal Life

For over thirty years, his partner was fellow Socialist politician Ségolène Royal, with whom he has four children – Thomas (1984), Clémence (1985), Julien (1987) and Flora (1992). In June 2007, just a month after Royal's defeat in the French presidential election of 2007, the couple announced that they were separating.

A few months after his split from Ségolène Royal was announced, a French website published details of a relationship between Hollande and French journalist Valérie Trierweiler. This was controversial as some considered this to be a breach of France's strict stance on politicians' personal privacy. In November 2007, Valérie Trierweiler confirmed and openly discussed her relationship with Hollande in an interview with French weekly Télé 7 Jours.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Arsène Wenger

Arsène Wenger, OBE (born 22 October 1949) is a French football manager and former player. He is the manager of English Premier League side Arsenal, a position which he has held since 1996. Born in Strasbourg and subsequently raised in Duttlenheim, Wenger started playing for amateur football teams as a teenager before joining FC Mulhouse in 1973 to begin his professional career. He moved back to Strasbourg in 1975, where after six years he ended his playing career and completed his studies at the University of Strasbourg.

As a manager, Wenger achieved greater triumph and recognition. Despite an unsuccessful period at AS Nancy-Lorraine – culminating in his dismissal after the club's relegation from the First Division in 1987, Wenger won the league championship with AS Monaco the following season. In 1991, he guided the club to victory in the Coupe de France but failure to regain the domestic championship in later seasons led to Wenger departing Monaco by mutual consent at the end of the 1994–95 season. He briefly coached Japanese J. League side Nagoya Grampus Eight, winning the Emperor's Cup and the Japanese Super Cup.

It was at Arsenal that Wenger made a name for himself. In 1998, he became the first manager born outside of Britain to win the league and cup double and replicated the achievement in 2002. In 2004, Wenger became the only manager in Premier League history to go through an entire season undefeated, a run which ended at 49 matches. His tenure also brought the club their first appearance in a Champions League final at Paris in 2006. Wenger is the club's longest serving manager and most successful on trophies alone as of February 2012.

Wenger is widely regarded as one of the world's best managers. He has been dubbed a "miracle worker" by former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein for achieving consistency with minimal resources. Wenger is often credited for revolutionising the state of English football, in spite of his contentious recruitment policy and lack of discipline shown from his earlier Arsenal teams. The nickname Le Professeur was given to him by his former Arsenal players and is still used by fans and the British media today, reflecting his astute and forward thinking approach.

Early Life

The son of Alphonse and wife Louise Wenger, Wenger was born on 22 October 1949 in Strasbourg, Alsace. He was raised in the village of Duttlenheim, 13 miles south west of his birthplace along with his older sister and brother, Guy. Wenger's parents owned an automobile spare-parts business, as well as a bistro titled La Croix d'Or. Reflecting later on his upbringing in an address to the League Managers Association Wenger said, "There is no better psychological education than growing up in a pub … I learned about tactics and selection from the people talking about football in the pub – who plays on the left wing and who should be in the team."

Wenger was introduced to football by his father, the manager of the village team. As a young boy he was taken to see games in Germany, where he held an affection for Borussia Mönchengladbach. As Alsace was an area steeped in religion, Wenger and the village boys were raised Catholic and often needed to seek permission from the priest to miss vespers – evening prayers in order to play football. Because the population of Duttlenheim was small, fielding a team of eleven players of equal ages proved difficult. Wenger as a result did not play team football until the age of twelve.

Personal Life

Wenger is married to former basketball player Annie Brosterhous, with whom he has one daughter, Léa (born 1997), and lives in Totteridge, London. Away from managerial duties, he is a football consultant for French television station TF1. Wenger is also a world brand ambassador for Nike Football and FIFA World Cup sponsor Castrol. As part of the latter's arrangement, he has conducted several training camps for international youth teams worldwide, as well as advising and providing input to the Castrol Performance Index, FIFA's official ratings system, used for gauging player ratings at official FIFA tournaments ever since the system's inception. Wenger is also renowned for being multilingual; in addition to speaking fluent French, German and English, he commands some Italian, Spanish and Japanese.

Wenger has also authored a book on football management exclusively for the Japanese market, Shōsha no Spirit (勝者のエスプリ, Shōsha no Esupuri?, lit. The Spirit of Conquest in English and L'esprit conquérant in French), published by Japan Broadcast Publishing (a subsidiary of NHK) in September 1997, in which he highlights his managerial philosophy, ideals and values, as well as his thoughts on Japanese football and the game as a whole.

In 2007, Wenger had an asteroid, 33179 Arsènewenger, named after him by the astronomer Ian P. Griffin, who states Arsenal as his favourite football club.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Liliane Bettencourt

Liliane Bettencourt (born 21 October 1922) is a French heiress, socialite, businesswoman and philanthropist. She is one of the principal shareholders of L'Oréal and, with a fortune estimated at US$23.5 billion, is one of the wealthiest people in the world.

Biography

Bettencourt was born in Paris, France, the only child of Eugène Schueller, the founder of L'Oréal, one of the world's largest cosmetics and beauty companies. Her mother died in 1927 when Liliane was 5 years old, and she formed a close bond with her father, who later married Liliane's British governess. At the age of 15, she joined her father’s company as an apprentice, mixing cosmetics and labelling bottles of shampoo.

In 1950, she married French politician André Bettencourt, who served as a cabinet minister in French governments of the 1960s and 1970s and rose to become deputy chairman of L’Oréal. Bettencourt had been a member of La Cagoule, a violent French fascist group that Liliane's father had funded and supported in the 1930s and that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. After the war, her husband, like other members of La Cagoule, was given refuge at L'Oréal despite his politically inconvenient past. Eventually, the Bettencourts settled in an Art Moderne mansion built in 1951 on rue de Delabordère in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. They had one daughter, Françoise, who was born on 10 July 1953.

In 1957, Liliane Bettencourt inherited the L'Oréal fortune when her father died, becoming the principal shareholder of L'Oréal. In 1963, the company went public, although Bettencourt continued to own a majority stake. In 1974, she exchanged almost half of her stake for a three percent (3%) stake in Nestlé S.A.

As of 31 December 2009, Ms Bettencourt owned 185,661,879 (31.0%) of the outstanding shares of L'Oréal (of which, 76,440,541 (12.76%) shares are effectively held in trust for her daughter), while the remainder is owned as follows: 178,381,021 (29.78%) shares by Nestlé, 216,384,762 (36.12%) shares are publicly held and the remainder are held as treasury stock or in the company savings plan. The Bettencourt family and Nestle act in concert pursuant to a shareholders’ agreement. Ms Bettencourt is a member of the board of directors of L'Oréal, a position she has held since 1995. Bettencourt’s daughter and her daughter’s husband (Jean-Pierre Meyers) are also members of the board of directors.

From : www.wikipedia.org

New Caledonia [France]

A French overseas territory in the Pacific, New Caledonia has seen deep divisions between its indigenous and European populations, notably over the thorny question of independence.

Named by the British explorer Captain James Cook, who spotted similarities with the Scottish highlands, the territory was annexed by France in 1853 and became a destination for thousands of French convicts.

Overview

But as the European population burgeoned, tensions - often over the loss of land - rose between the incomers and the indigenous Melanesians, known as Kanaks. A Kanak revolt in 1878 claimed more than 1,000 lives and heralded further repression by the French rulers.

Kanaks represent about 45% of the population. Europeans, most of them born in the territory, account for about a third of the inhabitants.

Rising pro-independence sentiment among the Kanaks, and strong resistance to the idea among the non-indigenous population, set the scene for violent unrest in the mid-1980s. At one stage France declared a state of emergency and sent paratroopers.

The signing of the 1988 Matignon Accord marked a reconciliation between the Kanak and European communities. It proposed an end to direct rule from Paris and a vote on independence, to be held in 1998. It also set out to tackle the economic imbalance between the wealthier - and mainly European - southern province and the rest of the territory.

However, the planned referendum was postponed under the 1998 Noumea Accord, which gave New Caledonia greater autonomy and stipulated that the independence vote should be held between 2014 and 2019. The accord also created New Caledonian citizenship.

In 2006 the French parliament approved plans to restrict the voting rights of French citizens in the territory, meaning that only long-standing residents would be able to vote in territorial elections. The legislation had long been sought by the Kanak community.

The archipelago, which lies around 2,000 km from Sydney, Australia, possesses around a quarter of the world's nickel deposits. The industry boomed in the 1960s but is a hostage to price fluctuations. Nevertheless, New Caledonia enjoys one of the region's highest average incomes per capita.

The main island, Grande Terre, is ringed by a coral reef. Mountains divide the verdant east from a drier west. The territory boasts abundant plant and animal life. Colonial buildings and fine beaches contrast with the infrastructure of the nickel industry.

Facts

    * Territory: New Caledonia

    * Status: French overseas territory

    * Population: 230,000 (via UN, 2006)

    * Capital: Noumea

    * Area: 18,575 sq km (7,172 sq miles)

    * Major languages: French (official), Melanesian and Polynesian dialects

    * Major religions: Christianity, indigenous beliefs

    * Life expectancy: 73 years (men), 78 years (women) (UN)

    * Monetary unit: Pacific franc

    * Main exports: Nickel, prawns

    * GNI per capita: US$14,820 (World Bank, 1999)

    * Internet domain: .nc

    * International dialling code: +687

Leaders

Head of state: (French) President Nicolas Sarkozy, represented by a high commissioner

President: Philippe Gomes

Philippe Gomes was elected in June 2009 by Congress for a five-year term to replace Harold Martin.

Mr Gomes is the leader of the anti-independence Caledonia Together Party and was previously the president of New Caledonia's southern province.

From : BBC News

French Polynesia [France]

French Polynesia is a sprawling possession of France in the Pacific Ocean, made up of 118 volcanic and coral islands and atolls, including Tahiti.

For France this huge stretch of the Pacific - as big as Western Europe - remains strategically valuable. Atomic testing on the atolls enabled France to keep the nuclear clout it needed to remain one of the world's leading powers.

The issue of independence dominates the political agenda.

Overview

There are five island groups - the Society islands, the Tuamotu archipelago, the Gambier islands, the Marquesas islands and the Tubuai islands. Tahiti is the most densely-populated island.

European contact was gradual; the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and British were credited with the discovery of one or more of the islands. In the 18th century European traders and missionaries came, bringing diseases which wiped out much of the indigenous population.

The missionaries tried to put a stop to local religious practices, nudity and other aspects of indigenous life. Some forms of Polynesian culture were lost for many years.

Tahiti, in the Society islands, became a French colony in 1880. France later annexed other islands to form the French Colony of Oceania. In 1946 the islands became an overseas territory and in 2004 gained "overseas country" status.

Pro-independence movements flourished in the 1970s and over time the islands took more control of internal affairs, culminating in a statute granting increased autonomy in 1996.

There has been friction with Paris over nuclear testing. France conducted 41 atmospheric tests on the Mururoa atoll and neighbouring Fangataufa from 1966. In 1975, under international pressure, it switched to underground tests.

Ending a three year moratorium, French President Jacques Chirac said testing would resume in 1995. The move provoked international anger and protests in Papeete turned violent.

Six of the eight planned tests were carried out, the last one in January 1996. At the end of the programme Paris agreed to a 10-year compensation package.

In 1995 the UN's nuclear watchdog concluded that radiation levels around the atolls posed no threat. In 1999 Paris admitted that fractures had been discovered in the coral cone at the sites. The atolls continue to be monitored.

In March 2009, the French government enacted legislation to allow compensation for former workers at France's nuclear weapons test sites.

French Polynesia enjoys a high standard of living, but wealth is unevenly distributed and unemployment is high.

Tourism is an important money-earner; travellers favour Tahiti and Bora Bora. Boasting a year-round warm climate, volcanic peaks and tranquil lagoons, it is easy to see why the islands are popular. French Polynesia is, though, prone to typhoons.

Facts

    * Territory: French Polynesia

    * Status: French overseas territory

    * Population: 270,764 (World Bank, 2010)

    * Capital: Papeete, on Tahiti

    * Area: 4,167 sq km (1,609 sq miles)

    * Major language: Tahitian and French

    * Major religion: Christian

    * Life expectancy: 73 years (men), 78 years (women)

    * Monetary unit: Pacific franc

    * Main exports: Cultured black pearls, fish and coconut products

    * GNI per capita: $16,540 (World Bank, 1999)

    * Internet domain: .pf

    * International dialling code: + 689

Leaders

Head of state: (French) President Nicolas Sarkozy, represented by a high commissioner

President: Oscar Temaru

French Polynesia has a 57-member assembly which is elected every five years. The president is elected from the assembly. France retains responsibility for foreign affairs, defence, justice and security. The territory is represented in the French parliament by two deputies and a senator. It is represented at the European Parliament.

From : BBC News