Claude Guéant (born 17 January 1945) is a French

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. The former chief of staff to

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. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Sei ...

, he served as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from 27 February 2011 until 15 May 2012. He is a member of the

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...

(UMP).

Life and career

Claude Guéant was born in

Vimy Vimy ( or ; ; Dutch: ''Wimi'') is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Located east of Vimy is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Canadian soldiers w ...

. He studied law in Paris at a university. He then entered

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

and then the ENA administration school ( Thomas More promotion of 1971). After graduating from the ENA, he became chief of staff of the

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of the

Finistère Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.

department, and then, in 1974, general secretary of

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands— Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

for economic affairs. In 1977, he entered the

Ministry of Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

as a technical counsellor of Christian Bonnet, an office which he held until

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, ...

's election in 1981. Nominated sub-prefect (''sous-préfet hors-classe''), he then worked alongside the prefect of the region Centre. Guéant then became general secretary of the prefecture of the

Hérault Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a département in the Île-de-France region, Northern 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 we ...

. In 1991, he was nominated prefect of the

Hautes-Alpes Hautes-Alpes (; oc, Auts Aups; en, Upper Alps) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. It is located in the heart of the French Alps, after which it is named. Hautes-Alpes had a population of 141,22 ...

department. During the second

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a Romance (love), romantic or Human sexuality, sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such a ...

(

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, co ...

's government), he was named deputy-director of

Charles Pasqua Charles Victor Pasqua (18 April 192729 June 2015) was a French businessman and Gaullist politician. He was Interior Minister from 1986 to 1988, under Jacques Chirac's '' cohabitation'' government, and also from 1993 to 1995, under the government ...

's cabinet, who was at the time the Minister of Interior. In 1994, he was named general director of the national police. Under

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as ...

's presidency, he was named in 1998 prefect of the

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; frp, Franche-Comtât; also german: Freigrafschaft; es, Franco Condado; all ) is a cultural and historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, ...

region and of the

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period o ...

region and of the

Ille-et-Vilaine Ille-et-Vilaine (; br, Il-ha-Gwilen) is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named after the two rivers of the Ille and the Vilaine. It had a population of 1,079,498 in 2019.

department in 2000. He has been closely associated with

since at least 2002. From 2002 he was Sarkozy's chief of staff (''directeur de cabinet''), following him to the Ministry of Finance in 2004, then to the Ministry of the Interior from June 2005 to March 2007. During the 2007 presidential campaign, he was in charge of Sarkozy's campaign. and was named general secretary of the Elysée on 16 May 2007. He is particularly listened to by Sarkozy, and his power has given him many surnames such as the "Cardinal", "Prime Minister bis", or "

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is o ...

". On 27 February 2011, he was nominated Secretary of the Interior (

Ministère de l'Intérieur Minister of the Interior (french: Ministre de l'Intérieur; ) is a prominent position in the Government of France. The position is equivalent to the interior minister in other countries, like the Home Secretary in the United Kingdom, the Ministe ...

). Though

Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...

has explicitly denied it, many have claimed that Guéant's departure from the post of general secretary was a

sine qua non ''Sine qua non'' (, ) or ''condicio sine qua non'' (plural: ''condiciones sine quibus non'') is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for " conditionwithout which it could not be" ...

for Juppé to accept the Minister of Foreign Affairs position the same day, due to Guéant's meddling in foreign policy since his appointment in 2007. In 2015, Guéant was given a two-year suspended prison sentence, barred from public office for five years, and fined €75,000 for taking €210,000 over two years from a cash fund intended for police investigations and using it to award bonuses to himself and his staff. In 2019 a French court rejected his appeal, sentencing him to one year in prison. Guéant has been the target of two investigative judge cases, including one where Sarkozy's 2007 campaign allegedly received donations from the government of Libya, under the reign of Col.

Muammar el-Qaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by '' The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

. In October 2021, the Judicial Tribunal of Nanterre announced that Claude Guéant will be tried for "illicit financing" of his legislative campaign of 2012, because of the distribution of a leaflet in his favor by the mayor LR of Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de -Seine). On 21 January 2022, Guéant and three co-defendants, writer and one-time Sarkozy advisor

Patrick Buisson Patrick Buisson (born 1949 in Paris) is a conservative French essayist, journalist and political advisor. He was a journalist for ''Minute'', '' Valeurs Actuelles'' and '' Le Crapouillot'' as well as '' La Chaîne Info''. He has written several boo ...

, former cabinet director

Emmanuelle Mignon Emmanuelle Mignon (born 26 April 1968) served as Cabinet (government), cabinet director for French president Nicolas Sarkozy between May 2007 and July 2008. Education Emmanuelle Migno graduated from ESSEC business school in 1990. In 1992, she ...

and former pollster and consultant Pierre Giacometti, were found guilty of polling fraud involving allegations that they misused public money while ordering public opinion polls worth a combined 7.5 million euros ($8.7 million) during the course of Sarkozy's presidency between 2007 and 2012 and was sentenced to eight months in jail. He would be released on

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

on 9 February after it was determined that he repaid the French treasury 292,000 euros in damages.

Personal life

Guéant is a fan of American literature, and spent time in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

in his younger days.Le Point http://wn.com/Claude_Gu%C3%A9ant_et_Le_dix-huit_brumaire

References

External links

Notice biographique
of the '' Who's Who in France'' (restricted access) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gueant, Claude 1945 births Living people People from Vimy Union for a Popular Movement politicians The Strong Right French interior ministers Prefects of France Prefects of Doubs Prefects of Ille-et-Vilaine French civil servants Sciences Po alumni École nationale d'administration alumni Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur French politicians convicted of crimes Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 2nd class