Charles Roger René Jacques de Gaulle (born 25 September 1948) is a French politician. He is the eldest child of Admiral

Philippe de Gaulle Philippe Henri Xavier Antoine de Gaulle (born 28 December 1921) is a French retired admiral and senator. He is the eldest child and only son of General Charles de Gaulle, the first president of the French Fifth Republic, and his wife Yvonne. He is ...

and grandson of General

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 ...

, and served as a member of the European Parliament (MEP), from 1994 to 2004 (as a member of the Movement for France). A lawyer in Paris since 1971, Charles de Gaulle was a regional counselor of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais from 1986 to 1992, as a member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF) right-of-center party. From 1989 to 1990, he was the mayor's first assistant in Rueil-Malmaison in the

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a Departments of France, département in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner Banlieue, suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the e ...

department. He was present on Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's electoral list during the

1989 European elections The 1989 European Parliament election was a European election held across the 12 European Community member states in June 1989. It was the third European election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the same time as the other me ...

, and after resignations from UDF members who preceded him, he took his seat in Strasbourg in 1993. At the 1994 European elections, he was elected on Philippe de Villiers's Movement for France (MPF)'s electoral list. He joined the National Front in 1999, and was elected in the 1999 European Parliament elections as a representative, but failed to win reelection in the following election.

Personal life

Charles de Gaulle is the eldest son of

and his wife, Henriette de Montalembert. He is the grandson of General de Gaulle, whose first name he bears, and the brother of Jean and Yves de Gaulle. In 1978, he married Dolorès Porati (born in 1943 in Ituzaingó, Argentina), with whom he had two children: Philippe (1980) and Édouard (1981). A graduate of the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (economics and finance section, class of 1970), he practiced as a lawyer at the Paris bar from 1971.

Member of European Parliament

De Gaulle was initially elected as an MEP in 1993 as a member of the Movement for France. He was also a member of the

Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group The Group of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (french: link=no, Groupe du parti européen des libéraux, démocrates et réformateurs, ELDR) was a liberal political group of the European Parliament between 1976 and 2004. The group ...

, a centrist and

liberalist Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for co ...

group. He served temporarily as a vice-chair on the European Committee for Energy, Research and Technology until July 1994. In his first full term as an MEP, he stayed loyal to the party. Initially a member of the

Europe of Nations Group The Europe of Nations Group was a Eurosceptic political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1994 and 1996. History The Europe of Nations Group (Coordination Group) was formed on 19 July 1994. It was the first Eurosceptic Group in ...

, a

Eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...

group, he moved to the Group of Independents, another Eurosceptic group, when the EDN dissolved itself in November 1996. He continued to serve as a member of several committees, and was reelected to a third and final term in 1999, now as a member of

Front National The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right: Academic: ...

. He became a co-chair of the initial form of the Technical Group of Independents shortly after the group's formation, although later did not join a group following the dissolution. He lost his seat in the 2004 election, and did not run again.

Time in the National Front

Starting in 1998, Charles de Gaulle got closer to Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front (FN), and was photographed with him in the town of

Sète Sète (; oc, Seta, ), also historically spelt ''Cette'' (official until 1928) and ''Sette'', is a commune in the Hérault department, in the region of Occitania, southern France. Its inhabitants are called ''Sétois'' (male) and ''Sétoises' ...

in May 1999. He refused to vote for the suspension of Le Pen's parliamentary immunity in Strasbourg. He joined the FN in 1999. Following him joining the party, a letter was published on the left-leaning newspaper Le Monde from over 50 descendants of General de Gaulle, as well as his three brothers, Jean, Yves and Pierre, who stated: He hit back against these comments on RTL's radio station, stating in an interview: 'The others in the family are failing to understand the real de Gaulle values, which French society is losing.' On May Day, Mr De Gaulle marched alongside Mr Le Pen when he laid a wreath at Joan of Arc's statue. Despite this, he presented himself at the 1999 European elections, as the party's second choice on the party list, and the 2001 municipal elections in Paris on National Front lists. He was not reelected to the European Parliament in 2004.

References

Charles de Gaulle 1948 20th-century French lawyers Politicians from Dijon 1948 births Living people Movement for France MEPs MEPs for France 1994–1999 MEPs for France 1999–2004 Union for French Democracy politicians Movement for France politicians National Rally (France) MEPs {{France-politician-MPF-stub