Jean-Pierre Chevènement (; born 9 March 1939) is a French politician who served as a minister in the 1980s and 1990s best known for his candidacy in the 2002 French presidential election. After serving as mayor of Belfort, he was elected to the Senate for the Territoire de Belfort in 2008. As a cofounder of the PS and founder of the Republican and Citizen Movement (MRC), he is a significant figure of the French left. Biography Background The Chevènement family is of Swiss origin, with their original name, Schwennemann, having been gallicized to Chevènement in the 18th century. He was born in Belfort near the Swiss border, speaks German, and studied in Vienna. Beginning in politics Chevènement's idiosyncratic left-wing nationalism has led to comparison with the late British politician Peter Shore. He describes his Eurosceptic and Gaullist position as "republican". He was Mayor of Belfort from 1983 to 2008 and was a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1973 to 2002. He joined the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and founded the Center for Socialist Studies, Research and Education (Centre d'études, de recherche et d'éducation socialistes or CERES). The organization constituted the left wing of the party, and promoted an alliance with the French Communist Party. In 1969 the SFIO was superseded by the Socialist Party (Parti socialiste or PS). Two years later, CERES supported the takeover of the party by François Mitterrand. It played a major role in drawing up the Socialist plan for victory in the 1981 elections. In governments Chevènement was Minister of Research and Industry from 1981 to 1983, when he resigned, for the first of three times in his career. He disagreed with the change in economic policy made by President Mitterrand in order to stay in the European Monetary System. He has said that "a minister has to keep his mouth shut; if he wants to open it, he resigns". However, he returned to the cabinet as Minister of National Education from 1984 to 1986. Appointed Minister of Defence in 1988, he served until 1991, when he resigned due to his opposition to the Gulf War. After this he opposed the Maastricht Treaty, an issue on which Mitterrand and the PS led the "yes" campaign. In 1993 he left the PS and founded a new political party: the Citizens' Movement (Mouvement des citoyens or MDC). Chevènement and the MDC participated in the