Dominique de Villepin

He graduated from the Lycée Français de New York in 1971.

Villepin was introduced to Jacques Chirac in the early 1980s and became one of his advisers on foreign policy.

He has three children: Marie (b. 1986), Arthur, and Victoire (b. 1989).

Contrary to what his surname suggests, Villepin is not from an aristocratic background.

His ancestors added the particle "de" to the family name.

His great-grandfather was a colonel in the French army, his grandfather was a board member for several companies, and his father Xavier de Villepin was a diplomat and a member of the Senate.

Villepin speaks French, English and Spanish.

In 1993 he became chief of staff (directeur de cabinet) of Alain Juppé, the Foreign Minister in Édouard Balladur's cabinet, who was Chirac's political heir apparent.

Villepin then became director of Chirac's successful 1995 presidential campaign and was rewarded with the key job of Secretary-General of the Élysée Palace during Chirac's first term as President of the Republic (1995–2002).

He advised the president to hold an early general election in 1997, while the French National Assembly was overwhelmingly dominated by the president's party.

This was a risky gamble, and Chirac's party went on to lose the elections.

Villepin offered Chirac his resignation afterwards, but it was turned down.

Villepin's flawed advice on the election increased the perception among many politicians on the right that Villepin had no experience or understanding of grassroots politics, and owed his enviable position only to being Chirac's protégé.

Villepin has had an uneasy relationship with the members of his own political side.

He has in the past made a number of demeaning remarks about members of parliament from his own party.

In addition, the mutual distaste between Villepin and Nicolas Sarkozy, head of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) majority party, is well known.

He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Chirac in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin at the beginning of Chirac's second term in 2002.

He came into the international spotlight as Minister of Foreign Affairs with his opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, one year after his appointment to the office, which culminated with a speech to the United Nations.

Before his tenure as prime minister, he also served as Minister of the Interior (2004–2005).

After being replaced by François Fillon as prime minister, De Villepin was indicted in connection with the Clearstream affair, but was subsequently cleared of charges of complicity in allowing false accusations to proceed against presidential rival Nicolas Sarkozy regarding bribes paid on a sale of warships to Taiwan.

De Villepin enjoyed a modest return to public favour for his public critique of President Sarkozy's style of "imperial rule."

He has written poetry, a book about poetry, and several historical and political essays, along with a study of Napoleon.

Villepin is an honorary member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

Villepin was born in Rabat, Morocco, and spent some time in Venezuela, where his family lived for four years.

He then lived in the U.S., and has said that he "grew up in the United States".

During his teenage years, "the 'Beat generation' movement left its mark on me, so did the hippie movement".

He was inspired by Jack Kerouac and other American poets.

During the 2004 coup d'état in Haiti, Villepin obtained the backing of the United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his bid to oust Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.

Villepin's most famous assignment as Chirac's foreign minister was opposing the U.S. plan to invade Iraq, giving France a leading role in the grouping of countries such as Germany, Belgium, Russia and China that opposed the invasion.

The speech he gave to the UN to block a second resolution allowing the use of force against Saddam Hussein's regime received loud applause.

Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac.

In his career working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, De Villepin rose through the ranks of the French right as one of Chirac's protégés.

When his mother died, Villepin gave a eulogy "full of the grandest and most sonorous cadences of the French language", wrote The Independent (UK) in 2010.

He "spoke of his mother's passionate belief in the greatness and the destiny of France, and, implicitly, the greatness and destiny of her son".

One mourner stated that he seemed to speak "of France and of himself as being the same thing".

Villepin studied at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and went on to the École nationale d'administration (ENA), France's highly selective post-graduate school which trains its top civil servants.

Villepin also holds degrees in Civil law and French literature from the universities of Panthéon-Assas and Paris X Nanterre.

At the end of his studies, he completed his military service as a naval officer on board the Aircraft Carrier Clemenceau.

Villepin then entered a career in diplomacy.

His assignments were: