Jacques Cheminade (; born 20 August 1941) is a French-Argentinian political activist. He is the head of Solidarity and Progress, the French arm of the LaRouche movement, and has thrice run for President of France. Education and professional life Cheminade was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After graduating from the HEC Paris, law school, and the École nationale d'administration, Cheminade became a career officer in the Directorate of Foreign Economic Relations of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry, a position he held until 1981. Political career Discovery of LaRouche's ideas Cheminade met Lyndon LaRouche in early 1974 in New York, where he was a commercial attaché to the French embassy from 1972 to 1977. He compares this encounter to Socratic midwifery. According to a 1976 FBI document, he was then a "rank and file member" in the National Caucus of Labor Committees, a political organization directed by Lyndon LaRouche which had founded its own "intelligence units" in 1971, where he "work[ed] in the International Intelligence Section" (see document, left). His return to France in 1977 was motivated by a desire to devote himself "full time to political activities and the advocacy of Mr. LaRouche's ideas and policies". 1978: Return to France In 1978, he was the Parti Ouvrier Européen (POE) candidate for the legislative election in the 18th arrondissement of Paris (25th circonscription), and obtained 0.12% of the votes. His program was: the creation of military force with beam weapons to protect Europe against the USSR; the fight against drugs and for the promotion of moral values; the fight against the IMF and against the economic crisis. 1981: Head of POE, support for Giscard In 1981, Cheminade became the general secretary of the European Workers Party and the president of the French section of the Schiller Institute, and took a leave from his work as a civil servant. He tried unsuccessfully to obtain the endorsements necessary to run for the presidential election of 1981, and called before the first round to vote for Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, saying: "I call upon all my partisans and friends to vote for Giscard d'Estaing. Three reasons prescribe that choice: his nuclear policy, his conception of détente and his commitment to fight monetarism. Moreover, he is in the best position to defeat François Mitterrand, whose candidacy poses the gravest and most immediate danger". 1982–1985: Defense of SDI In 1982, Cheminade published a statement presenting