Pierre Lellouche

Lellouche was a member of the National Assembly of France, first for Val d'Oise's 8th constituency (1993-1997) and later for Paris' 4th constituency (1997-2009).

In parliament, Lellouche served on the Defense Committee (1993-1994, 1997-2002) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs (1995-1997, 2002-2007).[4] In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the French delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 1997 until 2009; he served as the Assembly's President from November 2004 to 17 November 2006.

From 2002, Lellouche was also a member of "The Reformers" within the UMP group, which advocated the deep reform of the administration and the liberalization of the economy. He also became widely known for the 2003 Lellouche law which outlaws discrimination based on a variety of immutable characteristics, including national origin, and has therefore been described by Israeli newspaper Haaretz as "among the world's most potent tools to fight the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement."[5][6][7]

Following the 2007 French legislative election, his political allies Nicolas Sarkozy and François Fillon supported Lellouche as candidate for the chairmanship of the National Assembly’s Committee on Foreign Affairs or the Defence Committee, but this was eventually vetoed by the chairman of the UMP's parliamentary group, Jean-François Copé.[8]

On the local level, Lellouche was also a municipal councillor of Cannes (1995-2001) and a councillor of Paris (since 2001; reelected in 2008).

In 2009, President Nicolas Sarkozy appointed Lellouche as special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[9] In this capacity, he worked with his counterparts from the US (Richard Holbrooke), Germany (Bernd Mützelburg) and Sherard Cowper-Coles (United Kingdom).[10]

Governmental functions

• Secretary of State for Foreign Trade: 2010-2012
• Secretary of State for European Affairs: 2009-2010

As State Secretary for European Affairs, Lellouche was involved in the negotiations on the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in 2010.[11] In response to the 2010 Russian wildfires, he told Le Figaro that the EU should pool assets to create a European emergency force and build mutual assistance capabilities to deal with emergencies.[12]

Upon returning to parliament, Lellouche served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs again from 2012 until 2017.[13] In this capacity, he joined François Fillon, Étienne Blanc, Éric Ciotti and Valérie Pécresse on an official trip to Iraq in September 2014.[14]

In 2016, Lellouche triggered a process to activate article 68 of France’s constitution and impeach President François Hollande over a potential breach of security ollowing revelations that Hollande disclosed classified information to journalists;[15] a cross-party steering committee later voted in favor of halting the impeachment call in its tracks.[16]

Lellouche was also the French negotiator concerning the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, finally implanted in Cadarache in France.

Ahead of the Republicans' 2016 presidential primary, Lellouche endorsed François Fillon as the party's candidate for the 2017 French presidential election. Amid the Fillon affair, he later resigned from the campaign team shortly before the elections.[17] In an open letter, he also announced his plans to leave politics, citing disappointment with Fillon, whom he accused of pursuing a “personal and collective suicide,” encouraged by the “hysteria of a sect.”[18]

Lellouche called the UK Conservative Party's policy on the EU "pathetic" and a kind of political autism,[21] claiming "They have essentially castrated your UK influence in the European parliament."[22]

Lellouche is considered to be a supporter of strong cooperation with the United States of America.[23]

Lellouche defended a traditional view of the family during the discussions concerning the Pacte civil de solidarité (PACS), a form of civil union, during which he mentioned some “homophobic” arguments according to several observers.[24][25] However, later on in 2003 he was in favour of a law introducing harsher punishments for abuses against homosexuals.

Lellouche is also a strong opponent of the solidarity tax on wealth (ISF) first voted under François Mitterrand.

In 2015, Lellouche opposed a parliamentary decision to create a $60-million fund to compensate Holocaust victims deported by French state rail firm SNCF to Nazi concentration camps in a move also intended to protect the company from future U.S. litigation.[26]

In response to the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, Lellouche publicly opposed a bill proposed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls to let France's intelligence services deploy fly-on-the-wall spying devices more easily against suspected terrorists.[27]