| Gérard Longuet | |
| Office3: | President of the Union for a Popular Movement group in the Senate |
| Term Start3: | 7 July 2009 |
| Term End3: | 7 March 2011 |
| Predecessor3: | Henri de Raincourt |
| Successor3: | Jean-Claude Gaudin |
| Office4: | Senator for Meuse |
| Term Start4: | 17 June 2012 |
| Term End4: | 2 October 2023 |
| Term Start5: | 1 October 2001 |
| Term End5: | 27 March 2011 |
| Office: | Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs |
| Primeminister: | François Fillon |
| Term Start: | 27 February 2011 |
| Term End: | 15 May 2012 |
| Predecessor: | Alain Juppé |
| Successor: | Jean-Yves Le Drian |
| Office1: | Minister of Industry, Posts and Telecommunications and External Trade |
| Term Start1: | 30 March 1993 |
| Term End1: | 14 October 1994 |
| Primeminister1: | Édouard Balladur |
| Predecessor1: | Dominique Strauss-Kahn |
| Successor1: | José Rossi |
| Office6: | Member of the European Parliament for France |
| Term Start6: | 24 July 1984 |
| Term End6: | 19 March 1986 |
| Office7: | President of the Regional Council of Lorraine |
| Term Start7: | 4 April 1992 |
| Term End7: | 2 April 2004 |
| Predecessor7: | Jean-Marie Rausch |
| Successor7: | Jean-Pierre Masseret |
| Birth Name: | Gérard Edmond Jacques Longuet |
| Birth Date: | 24 February 1946 |
| Birth Place: | Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Education: | Lycée Henri-IV |
| Nationality: | French |
| Party: | Republican Party (before 1997) Liberal Democracy (1997–1998) Independent Republican and Liberal Pole (1998) Union for French Democracy (1998–2002) Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2015) The Republicans |
| Alma Mater: | Panthéon-Assas University Sciences Po École nationale d'administration |
Gérard Edmond Jacques Longuet (in French pronounced as /ʒeʁaʁ lɔ̃ɡɛ/; born 24 February 1946)[1] is a French politician who served as Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from 2011 to 2012.[2] [3] A member of The Republicans (LR), he represented the Meuse department in the Senate from 2001 to 2011 and again from 2012 to 2023.
When he was young, Longuet was part of a far-right movement called Occident.[4] In 1968, he wrote the founding charter of the Groupe Union Défense (GUD), a far-right students' union.[5]
Longuet served as a member of the National Assembly for the 1st constituency for Meuse from 1978 to 1981 and again from 1988 to 1993.
In the government of Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, Longuet first was Secretary of State for Posts and Telecommunications (March–August 1986) before becoming Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (1986–1988).
From 1990 to 1995, Longuet served as president of the Republican Party (PR). During that time, he was also Minister of Industry, Posts and Telecommunications, and Foreign Trade in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur from 1993 until he resigned in 1994.[6] Ahead of the 1995 presidential campaign, he supported Balladur as center-right candidate; instead, Jacques Chirac won the party's nomination and later the election.
On the regional level, Longuet was a regional councillor of Lorraine from 1992 until his resignation in 2010. He served as president of the Regional Council of Lorraine from 1992 to 2004.
From 2009 to 2011, Longuet served as the leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in the Senate.[7]
Shortly after taking office as Defence Minister under Prime Minister François Fillon, Longuet oversaw the French Air Force's involvement in the 2011 military intervention in Libya.[8] After the mission ended, he met his Libyan counterpart Osama al-Juwaili in 2012 to sign a letter of intent to improve maritime security and control Libya’s borders.[9]
Also early in his tenure, it was revealed that Longuet had spent a weekend in 2006 in a Tunisian palace at the expense of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown shortly after by a popular revolt.[10]
In January 2012, President Sarkozy dispatched Longuet and the head of the French army to Afghanistan to conduct a review of security after an Afghan soldier killed four French service members.[11] Shortly after, Longuet announced that France would withdraw its combat forces from Afghanistan – at the time, 2,400 soldiers in Kapisa Province – by 2013.[12]
Also in early 2012, Longuet led efforts on an agreement between France and Britain to jointly work to develop unmanned drones as part of their military cooperation.[13]
Following the 2012 Malian coup d'état, Longuet rejected the desert Tuaregs' declaration of independence for what they called the state of Azawad.[14]
As part of a reorganisation of the UMP leadership under their leader Jean-François Copé in January 2013, Longuet became – alongside Christian Estrosi, Henri de Raincourt, Jean-Claude Gaudin, Brice Hortefeux and Roger Karoutchi – one of the party's six vice presidents and served until December 2014.[15]
Ahead of The Republicans' 2016 presidential primary, Longuet endorsed François Fillon as the party's candidate for the 2017 French presidential election.[16]
From 2017 to 2020, Longuet served as president of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST).[17]
In 2005, Longuet was the only one among 47 persons prosecuted who was found not guilty in a trial over claims that construction companies had paid money to political parties in return for contracts.[18]
In 2008, Longuet compared homosexuality to pedophilia, and he said gay pride parades may lead LGBT teenagers to suicide.[19] [20] He has said he does not remember saying it, even though there is footage of it.[21]
Longuet's brother-in-law is billionaire Vincent Bolloré.[23]
Electoral mandates
European Parliament
Member of European Parliament: 1984–1986 (became minister in 1986).
General council
Vice President of the General Council of Meuse: 1982–1986.
General councillor of Meuse: 1979–1992 / 1998–2001 (Resignation). Reelected in 1985, 1998.
Municipal council
Municipal councillor of Bar-le-Duc: 1983–1989.