Jacques Cheminade (; born 20 August 1941) is a French-Argentinian political activist. He is the head of Solidarity and Progress, the French arm of the
LaRouche movement
The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...
, and has thrice run for
President of France
The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...
.
Education and professional life
Cheminade was born in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the RÃo de la Plata, on South ...
, Argentina. After graduating from the
HEC Paris
HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fi ...
, law school, and the
École nationale d'administration
The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President of France, President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the Constitu ...
, Cheminade became a career officer in the Directorate of Foreign Economic Relations of the
Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry
The Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty (french: Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et de la Souveraineté industrielle et numérique, pronounced ), informally referred to as Bercy, is one of the most impor ...
, a position he held until 1981.
[
]
Political career
Discovery of LaRouche's ideas
Cheminade met Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...
in early 1974 in New York, where he was a commercial attaché
In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accor ...
to the French embassy from 1972 to 1977. He compares this encounter to Socratic midwifery. According to a 1976 FBI document, he was then a "rank and file member" in the National Caucus of Labor Committees The National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) is a political organization in the United States founded and controlled by political activist Lyndon LaRouche until his 2019 death. LaRouche sometimes described the NCLC as a "philosophical association. ...
, a political organization directed by Lyndon LaRouche which had founded its own "intelligence units" in 1971, where he "work din the International Intelligence Section" (see document, left). His return to France in 1977 was motivated by a desire to devote himself "full time to political activities and the advocacy of Mr. LaRouche's ideas and policies".
1978: Return to France
In 1978, he was the Parti Ouvrier Européen (POE) candidate for the legislative election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
in the 18th arrondissement of Paris
The 18th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''dix-huitième''.
The arrondissement, known as Butte-Montmartr ...
(25th circonscription), and obtained 0.12% of the votes. His program was:
* the creation of military force with beam weapon
A particle-beam weapon uses a high-energy beam of atomic or subatomic particles to damage the target by disrupting its atomic and/or molecular structure. A particle-beam weapon is a type of directed-energy weapon, which directs energy in a part ...
s to protect Europe against the USSR;
* the fight against drugs and for the promotion of moral values;
* the fight against the IMF and against the economic crisis.
1981: Head of POE, support for Giscard
In 1981, Cheminade became the general secretary of the European Workers Party and the president of the French section of the Schiller Institute
The Schiller Institute is a German based political and economic think tank founded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, with stated members in 50 countries. It is among the principal organizations of the LaRouche movement. The institute's stated aim is to app ...
, and took a leave from his work as a civil servant. He tried unsuccessfully to obtain the endorsements necessary to run for the presidential election of 1981, and called before the first round to vote for Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981.
After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...
, saying: "I call upon all my partisans and friends to vote for Giscard d'Estaing. Three reasons prescribe that choice: his nuclear policy, his conception of détente and his commitment to fight monetarism. Moreover, he is in the best position to defeat François Mitterrand, whose candidacy poses the gravest and most immediate danger".
1982–1985: Defense of SDI
In 1982, Cheminade published a statement presenting the POE as a "pole of reference for all anti-Malthusian forces committed to reestablish economic growth and cultural morality" and advocating a program "similar to that of Lyndon LaRouche's ", which included at that time freedom from "British domination of American foreign policy", worldwide public works projects, the development of nuclear energy "to stop genocide" in undeveloped nations, a crackdown on an international drug cartel, and a return to classic education to counter "the genocidalists' plan for our youth".
In 1983, Cheminade published a statement on the danger of "new fascism" posed by an alleged plot against French president François Mitterrand
François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...
by some of his socialist ministers, including Jacques Delors
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors (born 20 July 1925) is a French politician who served as the 8th President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. He served as Minister of Finance of France from 1981 to 1984. He was a Member of the European Par ...
and Michel Rocard
Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991 during which he created the ''Revenu minimum d'ins ...
. The next year, he published an article in ''Executive Intelligence Review
''Executive Intelligence Review'' (''EIR'') is a weekly newsmagazine founded in 1974 by the American political activist Lyndon LaRouche. Based in Leesburg, Virginia, it maintains offices in a number of countries, according to its masthead, incl ...
'', accusing French president François Mitterrand of being a "Soviet agent of influence", as well as "the servant of the "families" involved in the Swiss-promoted "synarchist" operations that launched the fascist movement back in the 1920s on an international scale".
During the 1984 European elections
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's.
Until ...
, where the POE list he headed obtained 0.09% of the votes, Cheminade defended a program centered on the fight against three threats: an "immediate Russian threat that remains unperceived if not strongly favored"); an economic and financial one caused by "rampant Malthusianism and the role of the International Monetary Fund"; and a moral and intellectual decay, exemplified by the consumption of dangerous drugs. His program also referenced the ideas of Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
, a "Republican scientist", Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
, the only Socialist "with broad ideas" and the only one who "knew Leibniz and the pre-Socratic philosophers", as well as Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the countr ...
, who also "understood the epistemological foundations of France".
During the period of time from 1982 to 1984, according to his own statement, Cheminade was involved in arranging a number of meetings between "French government, military and political leaders, and Mr. LaRouche ..primarily on the subject of the SDI he Strategic Defense Initiative ("SDI")and its European complement, the Tactical Defense Initiative ("TDI")".
During the 1985 county elections, where his party presented candidates in 50 counties, Cheminade declared the POE "wholeheartedly supports Reagan's SDI program, a development program for the third world and a change in economic policy away from the International Monetary Fund". Later the same year, he said "unless the policies of the IMF are reversed , the Soviets will rule Europe and most of the rest of the world within this decade".
1986: French PANIC proposals
In 1986, while in the United States the Larouche movement presented the PANIC proposal, Cheminade, at a press conference held together with John Seale – a British physician who claimed that HIV had been created in a Soviet laboratory as part of a plot to destroy the United States, "ridiculed" the "condom campaigns" run in many countries and claimed that AIDS could be transmitted by saliva – presented the draft of a law providing for every resident of France to be screened for AIDS every six months, and every non-resident crossing the border into France to show an AIDS-negative
test certificate dating from less than six months before, or be tested, before he could be admitted into France. Another proposition of the same draft was to quarantine "full-blown AIDS cases until an effective vaccine and cure are found". Later the same year, he contributed to a conference organized by the French section of the Fusion Energy Foundation
Fusion Energy Foundation (FEF) was an American non-profit think tank co-founded by Lyndon LaRouche in 1974 in New York. It promoted the construction of nuclear power plants, research into fusion power and beam weapons and other causes. The FEF was ...
on "The Importance of the Method of Louis Pasteur for Conquering AIDS and Other Pandemics", where Dr Whiteside developed his views on the transmission of AIDS by mosquito bites, with a speech where he called "upon France to defend Science in the face of the brutal irrationalist attacks on Science".
1986: First appearance on national TV
During the campaign for the legislative election of 1986, the POE having presented more than 75 candidates in 27 departments, Cheminade was for the first time granted 8 minutes of national television time, and presented a program which included :
* an abolition of the International Monetary Fund;
* an industrialization of the Third World;
* a French Strategic Defense Initiative in cooperation with the United States, and deployment of the neutron bomb;
* a "Colbertist" approach to finance productive investments;
* an elimination of EC quotas to increase farm output;
* a war on drugs and terrorism;
* and an introduction of a classical education curriculum.
1987–1989: The end of the POE
In 1987, Cheminade, described by Daniel Carton in ''Le Monde'' as the leader of a "far-right small group", announced he would run for the 1988 presidential election with a five-point program: a Marshall plan for the third world, a reform of the international monetary system, a biological defense initiative, the relaunch of spatial programs and a European version of the SDI. He did not succeed to gather the necessary number of endorsements to back him.
In 1989, Cheminade headed the POE's list for the European Parliament election
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's.
Until ...
, called ''Rassemblement pour une France libre'' (Movement for a Free France). Its program was to fight against "European financial cartels dominated by the London stock market" and to promote "the construction of Europe by means of large public works". Larousse's ''Journal of the year'' considered these positions were close to those expressed by the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015.
Le Pen graduated fro ...
. The list obtained 0.18% of the votes.
He remained general secretary of the ''Parti Ouvrier Européen'' until its dissolution for bankruptcy in 1989. The POE was replaced in 1991 by the ''Fédération pour une Nouvelle Solidarité'' (FNS, Federation for a New Solidarity).
1991–1995: The FNS replaces the POE
In 1993, he was the sole candidate of his movement for the legislative election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
in Paris and obtained 0.32% of the votes.
1992: Theft trial
In 1992, Cheminade was condemned with suspension to 15 months of imprisonment for theft. He was charged of having received, through 3 associations, 1.2 million francs from an elderly lady with Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
. An appellate court
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...
confirmed in 1996 the qualification of theft, but reduced the sentence to 9 months with suspension. The judgement mentioned "conditioning" by "professional canvassers". The reduced sentence allowed Cheminade to benefit from an amnesty
Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...
law.
1995: Presidential candidate
In 1995, Cheminade obtained 556 endorsements from mayors, allowing him to run in the presidential election. Eric Incyan and Sylvie Kaufman in ''Le Monde'' described the obtaining of these endorsements as the result of a "generalized phone harassment". According to Daniel Hourquebie in ''Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', Cheminade's envoys targeted the mayors of small rural villages, presumed to favor small candidates and 7 out of 8 of Cheminade's endorsers in the department of Gers
Gers (; oc, Gers or , ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southwestern France. Named after the Gers River, its inhabitants are called the ''Gersois'' and ''Gersoises'' in French. In 2019, it had a population of 191,377. administered municipalities of less than 165 inhabitants. According to Renaud Dely in ''Libération
''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...
'', they pointed out to left-leaning mayors that Cheminade "filled a void" in the absence of Jacques Delors
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors (born 20 July 1925) is a French politician who served as the 8th President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995. He served as Minister of Finance of France from 1981 to 1984. He was a Member of the European Par ...
, while offering them a copy of Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
doctoral thesis republished in 1994 by Cheminade's party press with a foreword by Cheminade (described as an absurd rambling by Roger-Pol Droit in ''Le Monde''; to right-leaning mayors, the "need of defense against Russia" ; to thoses with a concern for environment, his concern for a re-emphasis of the rural world. The mayors of Ayguetinte, Bézues-Bajon and Saint-Justin said Cheminade's envoys had been the first ones to contact them. The mayor of Ayguetinte said he wanted to express his dissatisfaction with the political class. Other mayors commented on the insistence of Cheminade's emissaries : The mayor of Thoux said he finally accepted to be left in peace. The mayor of Planèzes
Planèzes (; oc, Planesas; ca, Planeses) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.
Geography
Planèzes is located in the canton of La Vallée de l'Agly and in the arrondissement of Perpignan. Planèzes is part ...
that he was constantly called, at any hour, at home or at the office. Three mayors from Creuse
Creuse (; oc, Cruesa or ) is a department in central France named after the river Creuse. After Lozère, it is the second least populated department in France. It is bordered by Indre and Cher to the north, Allier and Puy-de-Dôme to the eas ...
considered they had been "deceived" on Cheminade's program and political career. The mayor of Saint-Junien-la-Bregère said he was for sorry to have signed for somebody "who does not seem to be very honest, though I don't have a proof". The mayor of Sannat said on television : "I was told they were against racism, they seemed to be leaning to the left and he was a small candidate. But when I learned he was at the far-right and had been condemned, I jumped". Cheminade replied they had been harassed by journalists who told them he was a crank and his party was a sect.
His speeches, invoking the patronages of Jean Jaurès
Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social demo ...
and Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
, were centered on a "speculative cancer" destroying the world economy and for which Cheminade was blaming the "financial oligarchy" of the City of London, Wall Street, the Federal Reserve and the IMF, as well as their French "relays", such as the Banque de France. He advocated bankrupting agents of the international monetary and financial system, a "new Marshall Plan" and credit control.
Cheminade obtained 0.27% of the votes.
According to ''El Pais'', his campaign raised little interest except for the origin of its funding. According to Cécile Chambaud in ''Le Monde'', LaRouche was a "billionaire" and Cheminade's POE had always benefited of "large financial means". LaRouche sent a letter to ''Le Monde'' claiming he did not own his residence and his only revenue was his salary at ''Executive Intelligence Review''". Didier Micoine wrote in ''Le Parisien'' that Jacques Cheminade claimed to have a taxable income of 42,000 francs, to live with 6,000 francs a month and to own a 10-year-old Peugeot 305. Renaud Leblond and Loïc Stavidrès reported in ''L'Express'' Cheminade owned a apartment in Paris, earned 3,000 francs a month and benefited from the remains of a family inheritance. Nevertheless, according to ''Le Monde'', Cheminade claimed to be the largest donator of his campaign.
Constitutional Court ruling over campaign finance
The 1995 presidential election was the first one for which the Constitutional Council Constitutional Council might refer to:
* Constitutional Council (Chad)
* Constitutional Council (France)
* Constitutional Council (Ivory Coast)
* Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka)
* Constitutional Council (Cambodia)
* Constitutional Council (Kaz ...
had to appreciate the regularity of campaign accounts, in application of a law passed in January 1990. The Council examined the campaign accounts with what Jean-Claude Zarka, a professor of constitutional law, called "obvious caution" and Pierre Moscovici
Pierre Moscovici (, ; born 16 September 1957) is a French politician who served as the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as Minister of Finance from 2012 to 20 ...
, the campaign treasurer of the socialist Lionel Jospin
Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002.
Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...
, "eminent diplomacy". The campaign accounts of 8 candidates were approved, some with modifications, but those of Jacques Cheminade were rejected. According to Zarka, Cheminade was "financed after the vote by substantial gifts from private persons". The ruling of the Council said 2.3 million francs of private loans had to be qualified as gifts because of their relative importance in the accounts and the absence of interests. Moreover, 1.7 million francs, "over a third of the total of his declared receipts", was contracted after the second round. Following the rejection of his accounts, Cheminade was deprived of the lump-sum reimbursement of his campaign expenses and required to reimburse a million francs he had received from the state at the start of the campaign. In further observations, the Council recommended private loans to presidential candidates should be prohibited. Notwithstanding, Cheminade claimed the Civil code
A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property, family, and obligations.
A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdictions with a civil code, a number of the core ar ...
did not require a loan to bear interest, an assertion later confirmed by a lawyer specialized in civil law consulted by ''Le Journal du Dimanche''. He also claimed Roland Dumas
Roland Dumas (; born 23 August 1922) is a French lawyer and Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister under President François Mitterrand from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993. He was also President of the Constitutional Council f ...
, the president of the Council, had a conflict of interest with him, having represented his opponents in a libel case some years earlier.
Cheminade appealed to the European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...
, but his appeal was rejected. The Court estimated "the patrimonial incidence of a procedure pertaining to the conditions of practice of a right of political nature does nor confer to it a civil nature" and "the decision of the Constitutional Council has not deprived the plaintiff of property in any amount of money but has only obliged the plaintiff to reimburse to the state a million francs because he did not meet the legal conditions to claim the contractual reimbursement of the campaign expenses".
In November 2010, in the wake of an on the financing of Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur (; born 2 May 1929) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France under François Mitterrand from 29 March 1993 to 17 May 1995. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1995 French presidential election, comi ...
's 1995 presidential campaign, Raphaëlle Bacqué and Pascale Robert-Diard wrote in ''Le Monde'' the Constitutional Council had hesitated to validate his campaign accounts, as they showed 10 million francs in receipts of unknown origin. This, according to ''Le Parisien'', was later confirmed by Jacques Robert, a member of the court. According to ''Les Inrockuptibles'', Jacques Robert said: "In order to show that we were independent, we invalidated Jacques Cheminade, even though he had only committed minor errors". Raphaëlle Bacqué commented in ''Le Monde'' this revelation provided Cheminade a new argument to bail himself out of the litigation with the tax authority which followed the rejection of his campaign accounts.
Since 1996: S&P replaces FNS
Since 1996, he has been the chairman of one of LaRouche's political parties, ''Solidarité et Progrès'' (Solidarity and Progress).
In 1996, Cheminade wrote an article in ''Executive Intelligence Review'' entitled "Time To Destroy The Mythology of Bonapartism". He claimed "the British-French 'Entente Cordiale' is, today, the main threat to world history ..and it is Napoleon who burned the French state to ashes, and his degenerate brothers and descendants, his famiglia, who sold whatever they had to the British". According to this article, Napoleon had been "brought to madness" by the "mental control" of the British "oligarchical order", becoming a "pirate for the oligarchs". Cheminade added : "Napoleon, like Hitler, was first promoted by the British, as were the Jacobins before them, to destroy France, and to prevent a truly republican option". He further claimed : "Beyond the destruction of the French nation-state, what comes clearly to the light of day, is the second historical role assigned to Napoleon: the promotion of paganism, to destroy the humanist world liberation project. Against such a project, Napoleon was the dangerous but useful idiot of the oligarchs".
In 1997, shortly after the death of Princess Diana
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
, Cheminade wrote an article in ''Executive Intelligence Review'', next to an article by Lyndon LaRouche claiming "officials of France's Socialist government ..supervised the death of Princess Diana" and introducing Cheminade's own article as "an insider's view of the decadent, doomed tradition which Mitterrand's Presidency set into place". Cheminade's own article claimed President Mitterrand was "an agent of British influence", "all governments in France, since at least 1980, have continuously and persistently betrayed the sovereignty of their nation-state ..It is uniquely in that context, that the Lady Diana case can be understood".
In 1998, Cheminade claimed his party was the only one "to call for a positive alternative to the euro, with a New Bretton Woods system
The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretto ...
nda Eurasian Land-Bridge". The same year, he claimed the trial of Roland Dumas
Roland Dumas (; born 23 August 1922) is a French lawyer and Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister under President François Mitterrand from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993. He was also President of the Constitutional Council f ...
and the murder of prefect Claude Erignac were "connected ..o the international financial and monetary implosion, and to the British games in Europe and beyond". In 1999, he wrote : "The cause of the war is not Iraq, or Yugoslavia, the United States, or even Britain. It is the financial oligarchy of the City of London and Wall Street which has declared war on the people, in Africa, in
Russia, and elsewhere, where living standards and life expectancy are collapsing. The leading role in all cases has been
played by the British."
In 2000, Cheminade wrote "the assassins of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King ..were the same people who tried to murder de Gaulle, for the same oligarchical reasons". The same year, after the crash of Air France Flight 4590
On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde passenger jet on an international charter flight from Paris to New York, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground. It was the only fatal Concorde a ...
, he claimed it could be due to a sabotage, as the French authorities had "challenged the Anglo-American oligarchy in many areas".
In 2000, Cheminade announced he would be a candidate in the 2002 presidential election. He did not succeed to reach the necessary 500 endorsements, gathering only 406 of them. He sued , another presidential candidate, for slander and was granted damages. Cheminade filed a complaint to the Conseil constitutionnel
The Constitutional Council (french: Conseil constitutionnel; ) is the highest constitutional authority in France. It was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958 to ensure that constitutional principles and rules ...
, arguing he had been the subject of press attacks to deter mayors from endorsing him. The claim was rejected.
In 2001, Cheminade proposed the issuance of a gold based euro, "as a measure of national emergency under the present circumstances", with reference to "initiatives taken in Russia and Malaysia going in the same direction, with for example the issuance of the Russian golden chervonets
Chervonets is the traditional Russian name for large foreign, and domestic gold coins. The name comes from the Russian term ''"червонное золото"'' ("chervonnoye zoloto"), meaning “red gold" (also known as rose gold) – the o ...
". This was part of what LaRouche and Cheminade called a "new Bretton Woods Bretton Woods can refer to:
*Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, a village in the United States
**Bretton Woods Mountain Resort, a ski resort located in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
*The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, also known as the "United Nations Mo ...
", defined by Cheminade in 2003 as "a system of stable exchanges, based on a common reference, a gold-reserve system (and not a gold standard system), gold being used among states to settle their accounts, but not as a basis for credit".
In 2004, Cheminade and Eric Sauzé, his party's candidate in the March 2004 Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
county election were found guilty of slander against Dominique Perben
Dominique Perben (born 11 August 1945) is a French politician. Born in Lyon, he was French Minister of Transportation from 2005 to 2007. He was previously Minister of Justice (2002–05), Minister of Civil Service and Administration (1995–199 ...
, the minister of Justice, for the comparison in pictures of Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World ...
shaking hands with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
in Montoire-sur-le-Loir
Montoire-sur-le-Loir (, literally ''Montoire on the Loir''), commonly known as Montoire, is a commune near Vendôme, in the Loir-et-Cher department in Centre-Val de Loire, France.
History
Montoire-sur-le-Loir is known as the location where, on ...
and Perben recently doing the same with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th ...
. Cheminade was condemned to pay a fine of 15,000 euros. The judgement considered the leaflet made "a comparison between two periods of the history of France that have strictly nothing in common in terms of human and citizens’ rights" and Cheminade had "the objective disposition of resources that allowed them to print 25,000 copies of heleaflet". the judgement was confirmed in appeal in 2006.
In the 2004 European election, Cheminade headed list called ''Nouvelle solidarité'' in Île-de-France
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 = +01:00
, timezone1_DST = CEST
, utc_offset1_DST = +02:00
, blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product
, blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st
, bla ...
, which obtained 0.11% of the votes.
In 2004, during the restructuring of the Argentinian debt, which laRouche compared to ""transform ngArgentina into another Auschwitz", Cheminade organized protests in Paris, such as the distribution of leaflets claiming "that what happens in Argentina, will happen tomorrow in France, Germany, and all of Europe, and the United States, unless we take the road LaRouche has indicated, which is the New Bretton Woods" or organizing a demonstration in front of the headquarters of Lazard
Lazard Ltd (formerly known as Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is the world's lar ...
, the bank advising the Argentinian government.
Cheminade opposed the European constitution proposed in the 2005 referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, claiming it was a policy leading to fascism and to war.
In November 2005, Cheminade was a panelist at the conference of ''Axis for Peace'' organized by the Voltaire network
The Voltaire Network (french: Réseau Voltaire) is an international non-profit advocacy and alternative media organisation founded and lead by French journalist Thierry Meyssan. It specialices in international relations and has become known for ...
in Belgium.
In the 2007 French presidential race, he endorsed Ségolène Royal
Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election.
Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 2014 ...
.Solidarité & Progrès – L’appel de Jacques Cheminade pour le vote en faveur de Ségolène Royal en France
2012: Second presidential candidacy
On 31 January 2012 Cheminade announced that he had obtained the necessary 500 endorsements from elected officials that are required for ballot status in
the presidential election. Cheminade ran on a platform of:
*separation of commercial banking from investment banking, to end the "casino economy."
*a system of public credit for major development projects.
*investment in "human creativity."
*a Eurasian/Transpacific alliance against the "world of finance."
*the removal of heads of state who "lead us blindly into chaos and war."
He obtained 89,000 votes (0.25% of the votes) nationwide.
2017: Third presidential candidacy
In the first round of voting for the
2017 French presidential election
The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the Nationa ...
, Cheminade was in last place of 11 candidates, receiving 65,598 votes, or 0.18% of votes cast.
References
External links
Transcriptof an interview with Cheminade
Cheminade for the 2017 presidential elections(in French)
Solidarity and Progress(in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheminade, Jacques
1941 births
Living people
People from Buenos Aires
21st-century French politicians
HEC Paris alumni
École nationale d'administration alumni
LaRouche movement
Candidates in the 1995 French presidential election
Candidates in the 2012 French presidential election
Candidates in the 2017 French presidential election