Rally for an Independent and Sovereign France
Which political party did François Asselineau belong to from 2006 to 2007?
François Asselineau François Asselineau ( , born 14 September 1957 ) is a French politician and an Inspector General for finances . Asselineau was a member of the Rally for France ( RPF ) and UMP before creating his own political party the Popular Republican Union ( Union Populaire Républicaine or UPR ) . His movement promotes Frances unilateral withdrawal from the European Union , the Eurozone and NATO . Asselineau has been described as a souverainist but doesnt self-identify as such . He identifies neither as right-wing nor left-wing . Asselineau has had a troubled relationship with the media , which he has repeatedly accused of censorship . In his critique he includes French Wikipedia , which has considered him insufficiently noteworthy to justify a page in the encyclopedia . The activism of his supporters to try and increase media coverage of Asselineau and the UPR has been noted by some observers . He ran in the 2017 French presidential election , presenting himself as the “Frexit candidate” . He was eventually eliminated in the first round , earning only 0.92% of the votes . Education . Asselineau enrolled in HEC Paris where he graduated in 1980 with the MSc in Management . He enrolled at the École nationale dadministration ( promotion Léonard de Vinci , 1985 ) . Career . Asselineau started his career in Japan in the department of economic expansion for National Service Overseas ( CSNE ) . Served in 1985 as inspector General in the inspection générale des Finances . From 1989 to 1990 , he was chief of mission for the National Credit . He was also president of the direction of the Society for Economical and Financial Analysis and Diagnostic ( SADEF ) . In 1991 , he became chief of mission of the Asia-Oceania office at the Direction of Foreign Economical Relation ( DREE ) in the Ministry of Economy and Finance under the Pierre Bérégovoy government . From 1994 to 1995 , he served as counsellor for international affairs in the Ministry of Industry under the Edouard Balladur government . In June 1995 , he was named director of the office of the Ministry of Tourism . In 1996 , he moved to the ministry of Foreign Affairs , where he was in charge of economic matters for Asia , Oceania and Latin America until the dissolution of parliament by Jacques Chirac in 1997 . Political career . In 1999 , François Asselineau got involved in politics by becoming a member of the Rally for France ( RPF ) , a party created by Charles Pasqua and Philippe de Villiers . He became a member of the national bureau , director of studies and spokesman of the party until autumn 2005 . On July 27 , 2000 , he became vice-director of the general council of the Hauts-de-Seine . He was in charge of economic and international affairs . On May 23 , 2001 , Charles Pasqua nominated François Asselineau as the director of his office of the presidency of the general council of Hauts-de-Seine where he worked until March 30 , 2004 when Nicolas Sarkozy took over the position of Charles Pasqua . On October 20 , 2004 , Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Asselineau as the director of the general delegation for economic intelligence within the Minister of Economy and Finance . In November 2006 , Asselineau joined the steering committee of Rally for an Independent and Sovereign France ( RIF ) , a party created by Paul-Marie Coûteaux , Municipal councillor . On March 19 , 2001 , he was elected as a member of the council of Paris in the 19e arrondissement de Paris . His list , a right-wing dissident list made with an agreement between Jean Tiberi and Charles Pasqua , was third with 15,78% in a triangular against a Rally for the Republic ( RPR ) list and unified left list composed with Socialist Party ( PS ) . His campaign was marked by a radical rhetoric on security , with posters denouncing six years of socialist laxity , supposed drug trafficking , alleged prostitution and an asserted lack of police forces . On December 31 , 2004 , Asselineau decided to join the group Union for a Popular Movement ( UMP ) at the Council of Paris . On November 3 , 2006 , he decided to quit the group and seat with the non-inscrits just after Françoise de Panafieu , for whom he worked , was elected president of the council of Paris for the Union for a Popular Movement ( UMP ) . In September 2007 , Asselineau participated in a dissident political group named Paris Libre with several other ex-UMP members . The group ran several lists against the Union for a Popular Movement ( UMP ) , and Asselineau ran a list in the 17e arrondissement de Paris against Françoise de Panafieu . However , he then backtracked , denouncing consequent pressure on the members of his list . Creation of the UPR . On March 25 , 2007 , for the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaty signature , he created the Popular Republican Union ( UPR ) . Election results . In January 2011 , François Asselineau announced his intention to run for the 2012 French presidential election , and confirmed this intention in December 2011 . However , he was only able to garner 17 of the required 500 endorsements from elected politicians necessary to be on the ballot . As a result , Asselineau called for a boycott of the presidential election . Following the Cahuzac affair and the resignation of Jérôme Cahuzac , for whom Asselineau had worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance , Asselineau ran for the legislative by-election in Lot-et-Garonnes 3rd constituency , with Régis Chamagne . They failed to reach the second round with a score of 189 votes ( 0.58% ) . Asselineau ran for the 2014 European Parliament election as the head of the list for the Île-de-France constituency . He hoped that the UPRs agenda could rally voters disappointed by the current political system . Asselineau complained to the CSA for not having had access to mainstream media ; he also claimed that the principle of equity for all candidates was actually undermined by the media , that tended to give voice to parties that were already well-known . He scored 0.56% of votes cast in his constituency . Political views . François Asselineaus souverainiste platform has two main targets , the European Union and the United States . He insists that France should leave the Eurozone , the European Union , and NATO . According to Asselineau , the EU and NATO as seen from Washington...are the political and military side of the same coin , that of the enthrallment of the European continent to their buffer zone so as to surround and contain the Russian continental power . He says the process leading to European unification was launched solely upon orders from the American government . Asselineau denies he is a eurosceptic , preferring to call himself a euro-atheist . He said on the French TV program On nest pas couché that he opposes military intervention in Syria and Iraq . Asselineau claims the 1944 Conseil national de la Résistance as the source of inspiration for his presidential program in 2012 , including re-nationalisations and quality public services . Asselineau does not say what should be done about the major national issues such as nuclear power in France , the French debt crisis or the decisions to be made about immigration , [ which ] should be addressed through referendums , once France has left the European Union . Other . In November 2019 was published in Japanese a book comparing the EU system with the one of contemporary China ; the book includes mostly contributions by Japanese politicians and intellectuals , but also contributions by Emmanuel Todd and François Asselineau .