Jérôme Rivière (born 8 July 1964) is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who has served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) from 2019 to 2024. A member of the

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement ( ; UMP ) was a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in France, political party in France, largely inspired by the Gaullism, Gaullist tradition. During its existence, the UMP was o ...

(UMP) until 2007, he was a member of the

National Rally The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right politics, far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and French nationalism, nationalist. It is the single largest Nat ...

(RN), previously known as the National Front (FN), from 2017 until 2022, when he announced his support for Éric Zemmour in the 2022 presidential election and was appointed vice chairman of Zemmour's newly-founded Reconquête party.

Biography

Education

Born in

Suresnes Suresnes () is a commune in the western inner suburbs of Paris, France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine, from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,482 as of 2020. Suresnes borders the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...

near

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Rivière received a master's degree from the ISG business school and an MBA from the European University of America at the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...

Career

He served as the deputy chief of staff for the Minister of Defense from 1993 to 1995 and was elected to the Regional Council of

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (commonly shortened to PACA), also known as Région Sud, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France, located at the far southeastern point of the Metropolitan France, mainland. The main P ...

where he served from 1998 to 2004. Rivière represented the first constituency of

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; ; ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the France–Italy border, Italian border and Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'A ...

in the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

from 2002 to 2007 as a member of the

. He was also a member of the subsidiary groups The Free Right and the

National Centre of Independents and Peasants The National Centre of Independents and Peasants (, ; CNIP) is a right-wing agrarian political party in France, founded in 1951 by the merger of the National Centre of Independents (CNI), the heir of the French Republican conservative-liberal ...

. In 2007, he endorsed Philippe de Villiers, the leader of the Movement for France (MPF) in the 2007 presidential election over his party's candidate, the eventual winner,

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...

. As a result, he was excluded from the UMP and failed to receive the party's nomination for that year's legislative elections. He was defeated running as a right-wing independent in his constituency against the UMP's official candidate and eventual winner Éric Ciotti. In 2009, the MPF-

Libertas Libertas (Latin for 'liberty' or 'freedom', ) is the Roman goddess and personification of liberty. She became a politicised figure in the late republic. She sometimes also appeared on coins from the imperial period, such as Galba's "Freedom ...

selected him to lead the list in the

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...

constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections. In November 2016, Rivière became the candidate backed by the National Front in the sixth constituency of Var for the 2017 legislative election, a race which he lost. He is

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician of the far-right National Rally, National Rally party (RN). She served as the party's president from 2011 to 2021, and ran for the French presidency in ...

's strategic advisor for defense policy and the international spokesperson for the

. In May 2019, he was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

. Rivière was subsequently elected President of the French delegation to the

Identity and Democracy Identity and Democracy (ID; ) was a political group of the European Parliament during the Ninth European Parliament term, launched on 13 June 2019. It comprised Far right politics, far-right, Right-wing populism, right-wing populist, Euroscept ...

group in the European Parliament. According to news media sources, he would serve as Minister of Defense in a government led by

. In January 2022, he decided to join Éric Zemmour's presidential campaign ahead of the 2022 French presidential election. As a result he relinquished the presidency of the French delegation to the Identity and Democracy Group at the European Parliament and was appointed Vice-Chairman of Reconquête, Zemmour's new political party.

References

External links

Jérôme Rivière's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riviere, Jerome 1964 births Living people ISG Business School alumni Union for a Popular Movement politicians National Rally politicians Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic MEPs for France 2019–2024 National Rally MEPs Politicians from Paris People from Suresnes Politicians from Île-de-France Reconquête politicians