Juppé, Alain

Juppé, Alain älăNˈ zhüpāˈ [key], 1945–, French politician, b. Les Landes. A member of the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR), he entered the Inspection des Finances in 1972. A protegé of Jacques Chirac, he was in charge of the Paris city budget during Chirac's mayoralty and later followed his mentor into national office. During Chirac's premiership, Juppé was France's budget minister (1984–86) and government spokesman (1986–88). In 1993, Juppé became foreign minister under Édouard Balladur, then succeeded him as premier in 1995. That year he was also elected RPR president and mayor of Bordeaux, giving him strong national and local power bases. In 1997, however, the RPR was decisively defeated at the polls. From 2002 to 2004 he was chairman of the Union for the Presidential Majority (later the Union for a Popular Movement; UMP), the successor of the RPR. Juppé, still mayor of Bordeaux and a member of the National Assembly, was convicted on corruption inquiries relating to his Paris years in 2004, and subsequently resigned as mayor of Bordeaux and from the National Assembly. In 2006, however, returned to government as mayor of Bordeaux. After Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president in 2007, Juppé was briefly minister of state for the environment and sustainable development, but he resigned after he failed to win a seat in the National Assembly. He subsequently served as defense minister (2010–11) and foreign minister (2011–12). In 2016 he lost the Republicans (the former UMP) presidential primary runoff to François Fillon. In 2019 he broke with the Republicans as they drifted further to the right.

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