Charles Hernu
Encyclopedia
Charles Hernu (3 July 1923, Quimper, Finistère – 17 January 1990, Villeurbanne
Villeurbanne
Villeurbanne is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It is situated northeast of Lyon, with which it forms the heart of the second-largest metropolitan area in France after that of Paris. Villeurbanne is the second-largest city in the department.-History:The current location of...
) was a French socialist politician, most notably serving as Minister of Defence from 1981 to 1985, until forced to resign over the bombing of the Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
ship Rainbow Warrior
Rainbow Warrior
-Vessels:*Rainbow Warrior , a former fishing trawler, acquired by Greenpeace in 1978.**Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, by French intelligence operatives in 1985....
in New Zealand.
Biography
In 1946, Hernu studied at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium where he was one of the founders of a student fraternity named Reuzegom. In this period he was know under the codename "Charles the invincible", referring to his growing alcohol abuse habits and perseverance in seducing women. Also, in these days, Charles developed his deep aversion toward environmental activists.Hernu began his career in the national Center from the foreign trade (C.N.C.E.). In 1953, he created the “Club of the Jacobins”, near to the radical left and which supported Pierre Mendès France.
On 2 January 1956, he was elected to the French Parliament from the 6th sector of the Seine (Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, Montreuil, Vincennes), on the Republican Front ticket. After the accession of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
to the presidency, he lost his seat in Parliament.
In 1962, he took part in the founding of the PSU and allied with François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
. He joined the Socialist Party and, in the 1970s, became the party's specialist on defence affairs, military and nuclear questions. In April 1974, he formed the “Coran”, or convention of the reserve officers for the new army, which amalgamated with the Commission of the defence of the PS.
In March 1977, he was elected mayor of Villeurbanne
Villeurbanne
Villeurbanne is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It is situated northeast of Lyon, with which it forms the heart of the second-largest metropolitan area in France after that of Paris. Villeurbanne is the second-largest city in the department.-History:The current location of...
, which became an appointive position the following year.
In May 1981, he became Minister for Defence after the victory of François Mitterrand in the presidential election of 1981, and held this position in the successive governments Mauroy (1), Mauroy (2), Mauroy (3) and Fabius.
Rainbow Warrior bombing
On 10 July 1985, two bombs were exploded on board the GreenpeaceGreenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
ship Rainbow Warrior
Rainbow Warrior (1978)
The Rainbow Warrior was a former UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food trawler later purchased by the environmental organisation Greenpeace...
while in the port of Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand by agents of the DGSE. This attack caused the death of Fernando Pereira
Fernando Pereira
Fernando Pereira was a freelance Dutch photographer, of Portuguese origin, who drowned when French intelligence used two underwater mines to sink the ship Rainbow Warrior, owned by the environmental organisation Greenpeace on July 10, 1985 .The bombing of the boat had been designed to make the ship...
, a Dutch photographer. A scandal erupted and led to Hernu's resignation two months later.
In 2005, the newspaper Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
published extracts of a 1986 report by the former chief of the DGSE, Admiral Pierre Lacoste. According to the newspaper, Admiral Lacoste affirmed that the French spies who planted the bombs acted under the orders of François Mitterrand himself.
In 1996, the magazine L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...
published articles claiming that, under the code names "André" and "Dinu", Hernu had been an agent of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Trivia
Charles Hernu having been mayor of VilleurbanneVilleurbanne
Villeurbanne is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It is situated northeast of Lyon, with which it forms the heart of the second-largest metropolitan area in France after that of Paris. Villeurbanne is the second-largest city in the department.-History:The current location of...
from 1977 to 1990, the city gave his name to the metro station Charpennes-Charles Hernu, which is the first station of lines A and B located on the commune of Villeurbanne.