Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (; born 7 March 1961), sometimes referred to by his initials NDA, is a French politician serving since 2008 as president of the minor party

Debout la France Debout la France (, , DLF), originally called Debout la République (, , DLR), is a French political party founded by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan in 1999 as the "genuine Gaullist" branch of the Rally for the Republic. It was relaunched again in 200 ...

. He was its only member in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

, having been elected for

Essonne's 8th constituency The 8th constituency of Essonne is a French legislative constituency in the Essonne department. Its member of the National Assembly has been Bérenger Cernon since 2024. Description The 8th constituency of Essonne is in the north east of the ...

beginning in 1997; he was previously

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Yerres Yerres () is a commune in the Essonne department, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from Central Paris. Population Inhabitants are called ''Yerrois'' in French. Geography Yerres lies in the North-Eastern part of ...

from 1995 to 2017. 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) party until January 2007, he then founded the

Gaullist Gaullism ( ) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withdrew French forces from t ...

and souverainist party

(DLF; "France Arise") in November 2008, named Debout la République until October 2014 and which is closely linked to the

European political party A European political party, formerly known as a political party at European levelArticle 10.4 of the 2007 Treaty on European Union states that "political parties at European level contribute to forming European political awareness" and Regul ...

Europeans United for Democracy Europeans United for Democracy – Alliance for a Europe of Democracies, formerly known as ''EUDemocrats'', was a Euroscepticism, Eurosceptic and self-described Eurorealism, Eurorealist European political party. It sought a radical decentraliza ...

. He ran for

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is the supreme magistracy of the country, the po ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. He endorsed the runner-up

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 ...

in the 2017 and 2022 second round elections. He was

unseated Unseating is a political term which refers to a legislator who loses their seat in an election. A legislator who is unseated loses the right to sit in a legislative chamber. A landslide victory results in many legislators being unseated. Austral ...

in the

2024 French legislative election Legislative elections in France, Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 (and one day earlier for some voters outside of metropolitan France) to elect all 577 Deputy (France), members of the 17th legislature of th ...

Early life

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was born Nicolas Dupont on 7 March 1961, in Paris, the son of Jean-Louis Dupont, a wine maker and veteran of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

who escaped a German POW camp, and Colette Aignan. During his youth, Dupont-Aignan was a member of

Rally for the Republic The Rally for the Republic ( ; RPR ) was a Gaullist and conservative political party in France. Originating from the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR), it was founded by Jacques Chirac in 1976 and presented itself as the heir of Gaul ...

. He campaigned for the

politician

Jacques Chaban-Delmas Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d ...

during the 1974 presidential election. Dupont-Aignan graduated from

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

in 1982 and acquired his law license in 1984. He received a postgraduate degree from

Paris Dauphine University Paris Dauphine University - PSL () is a Grande École and public institution of higher education and research based in Paris, France, Collegiate university, constituent college of PSL University. As of 2022, Dauphine has 9,400 students in 8 fields ...

. He also attended the ''

École nationale d'administration The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...

'', between 1987 and 1989.

Political career

Early years

Dupont-Aignan began his professional career in politics as a civil administrator and working in several ministerial offices, including that of the Minister of National Education and the Environment. Dupont-Aignan joined

Rally for France The Rally for France ( (RPF); also briefly known in 2003 as Rally for France and European Independence or ) was a right-wing political party in France. It was founded in 1999 by Gaullist former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, then allied with ...

in 1993 and then began serving in

Michel Barnier Michel Jean Barnier (; born 9 January 1951) is a French politician who was Prime Minister of France from September to December 2024. A member of a series of Gaullist parties ( UDR, RPR, UMP, LR), Barnier has served in several French cabinet p ...

's ministry of the environment in February 1995 though he refused to support either

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 ...

or Jacques Chirac in their presidential campaigns that year. Serving with Michel Barnier, Dupont-Aignan was friendly with multiple Europhile personalities such as Francois Bayrou.

National politics

In the early 1990s, the city of

was in 20 million euros in debt following the closure of a major aquatic centre that shut down a few months after its opening. In the 1995 municipal elections, Dupont-Aignan was elected with 51.8% of the vote against the then-Socialist mayor. He was also reelected in 2008 with 79.70% of the vote in the first round, giving him one of the biggest margins of victory for a mayor in France. Shortly after becoming mayor, Dupont-Aignan attempted to fix the debt issue by renegotiating the interest rate with banks, he was able to lower the debt from 45 million euros to 34 million euros. Dupont-Aignan took this further by cancelling infrastructure initiatives set by the previous mayor and developed a cheaper plan that included creating communal housing. In terms of environmental policy, Dupont-Aignan used reprocessed swimming water to clean streets and his environmental policies won awards for the city. A municipal police brigade that could patrol the forest areas was created and CCTV was upgraded. Yerres had a lower crime rate than the rest of Essonne. Dupont-Aignan was first elected to the National Assembly in 1997 as the member for Essonne's 8th constituency. He has been reelected every legislative election since. Following the creation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Dupont-Aignan ran in the leadership election in 2002 and again in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, losing both. Dupont-Aignan also campaigned for a "No" vote in the

2005 French European Constitution referendum A referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was held in France on 29 May 2005 to decide whether the French government should ratify the proposed constitution of the European Union. The result was a victory for the "no" cam ...

, abandoning perceived Gaullist principles. He was one of the only members of the UMP to vote "No".

Foundation of Debout la France

Following disagreement with the UMP candidate,

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 ...

, Dupont-Aignan left the UMP on 13 January 2007. Dupont-Aignan intended to run for the 2007 presidential election but failed to gather the necessary 500 signatures of elected officials. Following his failure to gather the 500 signatures necessary to run, Dupont-Aignan was reelected in his constituency of Essonne 8th though he was no longer a part of the presidential majority due to disagreements with President Sarkozy over taxes and a pro-American foreign policy, voting alongside the Socialist Party on several occasions. Dupont-Aignan eventually founded

on 23 November 2008 with the ambition of founding a third party that could compete with both the right wing UMP and left-wing Socialist Party who he labeled as being the "same". Debout la France contested the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Member of the European Parliament, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent s ...

, gaining 2.04% of the vote in

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France ( or ), also known as European France (), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises #Hexagon, the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" ( or ), and Corsica. This collective name for the ...

2012 presidential election

In November 2010, Dupont-Aignan announced his intention to run for the 2012 presidential election during the annual congress for France Arise, pledging to leave the Euro and return to the Franc, leaving the Euro as a reserve currency. In March 2012 he announced that he had obtained the necessary 500 signatures to run as an official candidate. Dupont-Aignan received 644,043 votes on the first ballot, or 1.79% of the votes cast, finishing seventh. His best showing (24.88%) was in Yerres, of which he was mayor. He did not endorse any candidate for the second round.

2017 presidential election

Dupont-Aignan announced his candidacy for the 2017 presidential election during an interview on TF1 on 15 March 2016. Polls taken shortly after gave Dupont-Aignan a voting intention between 3 and 6%. On 7 March 2017, Dupont-Aignan secured the necessary 500 signatures to run in the 2017 presidential election before releasing his manifesto the following day in the form of a book. Shortly after the beginning of the first round, Dupont-Aignan denounced Emmanuel Macron, saying that he "served the interests of the rich" and accused

Serge Dassault Serge Dassault (; born Serge Paul André Bloch; 4 April 1925 – 28 May 2018) was a French engineer, businessman and politician. He was the chairman and chief executive officer of Dassault Group, and a conservative politician. According to ...

, the owner of ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'', of harassing him through text messages in an attempt to get him to renounce his candidacy in endorsement of

François Fillon François Charles Amand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a French retired politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of The Republicans (previously known as the Union ...

. ''Le Figaro'' denies that Dupont-Aignan was harassed though does not deny text messages were exchanged between the two. On 22 April, Dupont-Aignan organised a petition demanding that three televised debates be shown during the first round with all candidates appearing at the debates. Because he was not invited to the first debate, he left prematurely and denounced TF1 for what he called a "lack of democracy". In the first voting round of 23 April, Dupont-Aignan came in the sixth place, receiving 1,695,000 votes which represents 4.70% of the vote total. Failing to hit the 5% threshold, Dupont-Aignan was not reimbursed for his campaign funds. During an interview on 28 April 2017, he endorsed

for the second round saying that he would help her with campaigning.

pledged in return to appoint him as

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (), officially the prime minister of the French Republic (''Premier ministre de la République française''), is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of its Council of Ministers. The prime ...

should she win. The electoral alliance between Debout la France and Front National gathered protesters in Dupont-Aignan's commune, Yerres. Dupont-Aignan was also called a " petainist" and compared to

Pierre Laval Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic (France), Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vich ...

. Dupont-Aignan also had dissidents within his own party with his "right hand", Olivier Clodong, resigning.

Dominique Jamet Dominique Jamet (né Benjamin Jamet; born 16 February 1936, in Poitiers) is a French journalist, writer, and politician, best known for serving as the editor-in-chief of ''Le Quotidien de Paris'' from 1979 to 1987, serving as the president of Bib ...

, Vice President of Debout la France, resigned as well. Le Pen lost the vote in the second round of the election against Emmanuel Macron. Dupont-Aignan was reelected during the legislative election of 2017; he resigned as Mayor of Yerres later that year and was succeeded by Clodong. He was reelected in the 2022 election. In the 2024 election, he lost his seat in the second round to

New Popular Front The New Popular Front ( , NFP) is a broad Left-wing politics, left-wing electoral alliance with centre-left politics, centre-left and far-left politics, far-left factions in France. It was launched on 10 June 2024 to contest the 2024 French leg ...

's Bérenger Cernon.

Political positions

Dupont-Aignan describes himself as a

. Although he shares many policies and views with

, he is considered less hardline than she and has criticised her in the past. Dupont-Aignan strongly advocates leaving the

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

, calling it a "racket", and returning to the

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...

, retaining the euro only as a

reserve currency A reserve currency is a foreign currency that is held in significant quantities by central banks or other monetary authorities as part of their foreign exchange reserves. The reserve currency can be used in international transactions, internat ...

. Dupont-Aignan has also voiced his support for

Rattachism Rattachism (, , "reattach-ism") or Reunionism (''Réunionisme'', , "reunion-ism") is a political ideology which calls for the French-speaking part of Belgium or Wallonia to secede from Belgium and become part of France. Brussels, which is major ...

Personal life

Dupont-Aignan is married to lawyer and former parliamentary assistant Valérie Vecchierini. The couple have two daughters, Victoire and Sixtine. Dupont-Aignan declared during the 2017 presidential election that he was worth more than 2 million euros. He had also declared in 2013 that he has a house worth €130,000 in Yerres and an apartment in Paris worth €420,000.

References

External links

Arise the Republic's official website

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan's blog

EUDemocrats' official website

Official page on the French National Assembly website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupont-Aignan, Nicolas 1961 births Living people 20th-century mayors of places in France 21st-century mayors of places in France Politicians from Paris Rally for the Republic politicians Union for a Popular Movement politicians Debout la France politicians Mayors of places in Île-de-France Sciences Po alumni École nationale d'administration alumni Paris Dauphine University alumni Candidates in the 2012 French presidential election Candidates in the 2017 French presidential election Candidates in the 2022 French presidential election Deputies of the 11th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 14th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic French political party founders Members of Parliament for Essonne