Philippe de Villiers
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Philippe
Marie Jean Joseph Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon (born 25 March 1949),
known as Philippe de Villiers (French: [filip
də vilje]), is a French entrepreneur, politician and novelist.[2]
He is the founder of the Puy du Fou theme park in Vendée, which
is centred around the history of France. Appointed Secretary of State for Culture in 1986 by President François Mitterrand, de Villiers entered the National Assembly the following year and
the European Parliament in 1994.
After
leaving the Republican Party (PR) to found the Movement for France (MPF), he was its nominee
in the 1995 and 2007 presidential elections.[3]
He received 4.74% of the vote the first time, placing seventh; he won 2.23% of
the vote twelve years later, putting him in sixth place. De Villiers has been
internationally notable for his criticism of mass
immigration and Islam in France, as well as his ardent support of
the French way of life.
His
brother, General Pierre de Villiers, served as Chief of the Defence Staff from
2014 to 2017.
Personal
life
De
Villiers was born in Boulogne in the department of Vendée,
Western France,[2]
the second of five children and eldest son of Jacques Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon
(born in Nancy, 14 November 1913) and his wife Edwige d'Arexy
(born in Nantes,
1 July 1925). His paternal grandfather, Louis Le Jolis de Villiers, born at Brucheville
on 17 October 1874, was killed in action in World War
I at Saint-Paul-en-Forêt on 10 September 1914. On 24
October 1904, he had married Jeanne de Saintignon (27 July 1880 – 25 August
1959), by whom he had five children, the youngest of whom was Philippe's
father, Jacques.
De
Villiers received a master's degree in Law in 1971, graduated
from the Paris
Institute of Political Studies in 1973 and from the École nationale d'administration
in 1978.[2]
After his studies, De Villiers became a successful entrepreneur.[4]
He created the Puy du Fou, one of the most visited theme parks
in France, as a living showcase for its
history.[4]
The theme park includes a replica medieval city with the 'Gallo-Roman Stadium',
a colosseum
designed by De Villiers to stoke patriotic feeling by recreating Gallic
rebellions against Imperial Rome.[4]
The Puy du Fou park received awards from the Themed Entertainment Association
in 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2019.[5]
He is
married to Dominique du Buor de Villeneuve, born in Valenciennes
on 4 October 1950 and has seven children.
Career
1995
presidential bid
From 1976
to 1978, De Villiers served as a senior civil servant in the Chirac
administration.[6]
In 1981, he resigned his post as subprefect
because he did not want to serve the government of the Socialist President François Mitterrand.[7][citation needed] In 1986 and
1987, he briefly served as Secretary of State for Culture (Secrétaire
d'État auprès du Ministre de la Culture) in the second government of Jacques
Chirac, under Minister François Léotard. His appointment was initially
viewed badly by Libération and several other press agencies, which
referred to his "ambiguous personality". However, Villiers supported
Leotard's mixed, non-ideological policy towards French culture.[8]
In 1987,
he was elected into local office as a member in Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's Republican Party.[6]
He became a rising star within the Union for French Democracy.[9]
During the public debate over the Maastricht
Treaty, which established the European
Union, in 1992, he achieved lasting prominence in the media as an
anti-Treaty activist.[10]
This set him apart from most prominent members of the mainstream political
right.[9]
The French people narrowly ratified the Treaty
in September 1992.[10]
De
Villiers led an anti-European integration list in 1994 receiving about 12
percent of the votes, placing it in third place behind the Gaullists and the
Socialists.[6]
Villiers centered the campaign on opposition to the European
Union along with a call to eliminate corruption in government.[9]
In November 1994, Villers left the Republican Party to form Movement for France. He ran for President of France in 1995 and received about
5 percent of the vote.[6]
2007
presidential bid
Philippe de Villiers, May 2005
Once a
member of the Union for French Democracy, he then led
the Movement for France, which enjoyed some success
in elections for the European Parliament. The party's share of the
vote declined in the 2004 European Parliament
election. Nevertheless, Villiers and two other members of his party were
elected.
De
Villiers ran for the French presidency in 2007, and based his campaign on his
opposition to what he sees as the rampant Islamisation
of France. In May 2006, polls showed that he had garnered the support of about
4% of the electorate, almost twice as high as he actually polled in the first
round of the presidential election. An "Ifop-Paris-Match" poll
conducted on 12 October 2006 gave him his highest ever popularity rating, with
37% saying they "have an excellent or good opinion" of Villiers, and
28% saying they could vote for him in 2007.[citation needed] This was not
borne out in the results of the first round of voting, with him receiving less
than 3% of the popular vote.
Following
the first round of the 2007 presidential election, he called on voters to vote
for Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
candidate Nicolas Sarkozy to counter the Socialist Party's candidate Ségolène Royal and the left.
Villiers
and Konstantin Malofeev are planning to build two Russian
history related theme parks: one in Moscow and one in Yalta (Crimea); this is
in spite of Malofeev being added to the European
Union list
of people and organizations sanctioned during the Russo-Ukrainian War
(Malofeev is suspected of funding the pro-Russian rebels in Donbas during the Russo-Ukrainian War).[11]
In August 2014 Villiers travelled to Crimea to meet Russian
president Vladimir Putin; while there, he defended the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea
by saying the Crimean park will "promote the history of Crimea as part of
the long history of Russia".[11]
He also stated there "I would gladly swap Hollande and Sarkozy for
Putin".[11]
Philippe de Villiers during a meeting
with Russian President Vladimir Putin , in August 2014..jpg)
Philippe de Villiers at the podium
just before the arrival of Éric Zemmour at the Trocadéro meeting, March 27,
2022
During
the 2022 presidential election, he officially announced his support for Éric
Zemmour.[12]
He also joined his political party Reconquête.[13]
Criticism
of Islam
De
Villiers is known for his criticism of Islam in
France. He has stated, "I am the only politician who tells the French
the truth about the Islamisation of France" and, "I do not think
Islam is compatible with the French Republic". He advocates ending all
construction of mosques,
banning all Islamist
organisations suspected of links to terrorism,
and expelling extremist individuals from France.[14][15][16][17]
De
Villiers published Les mosquées de Roissy: nouvelles révélations sur
l'islamisation en France (The Mosques of Roissy: New Revelations about
Islamization in France) in 2006. In it he alleged, using internal documents
from whistleblowers,
that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated security
personnel at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris. The
book led to revocation of seventy-two employees' security clearances and
closure of six makeshift Muslim prayer rooms.[18][19]
Der
Spiegel, The Wall Street Journal, The
Boston Globe, and The San Francisco Chronicle have
labelled De Villiers as "far right" because of his views of Islam and of
Muslim immigrants.[15][16][17][19]
Political
philosophy
Villiers
is a nationalist,
a traditionalist,
and a leading eurosceptic.[4][20]
He has self-described as a "rooted conservative". During his tenure
under François Léotard, he said that he shared Léotard's
American-based "libertarian
liberalism".[6][8]
In 1995, The Economist referred to him as "an
ephemeral Catholic monarchist".[21]
He
advocates cutting taxes, expelling all illegal immigrants, and preventing Turkey from
joining the EU.[16]
He is a vocal critic of the European
Union's relationship with France, accusing it of "destroying their
jobs, their security and their identity" and saying that "the Europe
of Brussels is an anti-democratic dictatorship".[4]
He was a leader of the side advocating a 'No' vote in the 2005 French referendum
of the European Constitution.[20]
The 'No' side won the vote, which the activists believed constituted a major
victory for Euroscepticism in France.[20]
Villiers then launched a campaign to restore the franc,
remarking that "Everybody notes today that the adoption of the euro was a
technical success but its economic, political and human toll is
incontestable."[20]
Villiers
opposes immigration into France in general, but he has advocated that
"individual cases be treated with the greatest humanity." He also
opposes expelling current immigrants residing in France or subjecting them to
discrimination in housing, employment, or other spheres. Despite their
differences on these and other issues, the National Front's Jean
Marie Le Pen has remarked that Villiers' ideas were "lifted" from
him and that their "votes should be added together".[6]
Villiers
coined the phrase "Polish Plumber" in a June 2005 political speech
about the Bolkestein directive, referring to the
perceived threat of cheap East European labour to French wages.[22]
The mythical figure became a central point of debate in France, and it later
prompted an international controversy.[22]
He has also referred to the "Latvian mason" and the "Estonian
gardener."[22]
American
author Harvey Gerald Simmons has compared the "Villiers phenomenon"
to Ross
Perot's support in the 1992 American Presidential
election. He stated that De Villiers has a populist, anti-establishment image that puts him on the
edges of the mainstream political right of France rather than in the far right.[6]
Support
base
De
Villiers gathers his support from practising Roman Catholics, artisans, retired
people, farmers and small business owners.[6]
- @Reconquete_Z (11
December 2021). "Philippe
de Villiers (@PhdeVilliers) rejoint officiellement le parti #Reconquete
d'Éric Zemmour ! L'homme politique…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Your
MEPs:Philippe de VILLIERS. European Parliament:Main Website. Retrieved 4 March
2009.
- 2007
French Presidential Elections The
Washington Post
- France's Eurorebel
'with a cause'. By William Horsley. BBC News.
Published 30 March 2004.
- "Thea
Award recipients: 1994-2022". Archived from the
original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
- Gerald Simmons, Harvey (1996).
The French National Front. Westview
Press. pp. 107–111.
- "En
1981, Villiers avait démissionné". 23 March 2008.
- Looseley, David L. (1997). The
Politics of Fun. Berg Publishers. p. 166.
- DeClair, Edward G. (1999). Politics on the
fringe. Duke University Press. pp. 96–98.
ISBN 9780822321392.
- Laursen, Finn; Vanhoonacker,
Sophie (1994). The ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. Martinus Nijhoff
Publishers.
- Chazan, David (16 August 2014). "French
politician defends plan for Crimean theme park". The Daily
Telegraph. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
- French
Presidential Hopeful Decries "Islamization of France". Islam
Online. Published 24 April 2006.
- Far-right
leader decries "Islamisation of France"[dead link]. By Tom Heneghan. The Boston Globe. Published 23 April
2006.
- Philippe
de Villiers. By David Marcelis. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved
4 March 2009.
- Paris
Shuts Airport Muslim Prayer Rooms. By Elaine Ganley. The San Francisco Chronicle.
Published 2 August 2006.
- Mazel, Michelle. "Prophet
of Muslim Doom or Farsighted Politician?". Jewish Political
Studies Review 19:1-2 (Spring 2007). Archived from the
original on 13 June 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2009..
- Paris
Airport Bars Muslim Workers. Der
Spiegel. Published 2 November 2006.
- French
No campaigners launch new bid to bring back the franc. By Nicola
Smith. The Scotsman. Published 17 June 2005.
- The
Economist, Business & Economics Section, 1995, Page 21
- Unlikely
Hero in Europe's Spat: The 'Polish Plumber'. The New York Times. Published 26 June
2005.
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