Gérard Schivardi
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
politician. He contended in the French presidential election of 2007
French presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
under the colours of the Workers' Party
Workers' Party (France)
The Workers' Party was a French socialist party. It was formed by the Trotskyist Internationalist Communist Party led by Pierre Boussel, better known under his pseudonym Pierre Lambert, together with a number of other socialists with whom they worked in the Force Ouvrière union...
(Parti des Travailleurs) of Trotskyist legacy. He came last in the first round of balloting on 22 April, obtaining 0.34% of the popular vote (123,540 votes).
Biography
Schivardi was born in 1950 in NarbonneNarbonne
Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He is married and a father of two. Schivardi has been a master craftsman mason
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
since 1970, and is still in activity as of 2007.
From 1973 to 1988, he was president of the syndicate of the masons of Aude
Aude
Aude is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother...
.
In 1975 he joined the Socialist party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
. In 1989, he was elected in the city council of Mailhac
Mailhac
Mailhac is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.-Population:-Personalities:Its mayor, Gérard Schivardi, was a candidate in the French presidential election of 2007 but lost the election....
; in 1995 he became second deputy mayor. He was elected mayor of Mailhac in 2001. He advocated strong public services and increased power and independence of communes, denouncing what he called the "forced intercommunality".
In 2002, Schivardi met Daniel Gluckstein
Daniel Gluckstein
Daniel Gluckstein is a French Trotskyist politician for running for French presidential election of 2002 as candidate of the Workers' Party .-Biography:...
, who convinced him to support his campaign.
In July 2003 he was elected representative of the Canton of Ginestas and resigned form the Socialist Party. He then turned "Independent socialist", and was not a member of a political party afterwards, until he joined the Independent Workers' Party
Independent Workers' Party
The Independent Workers' Party is a French far-left political party founded in June 2008 after the dissolution of its predecessor, the Workers' Party...
(POI) in 2008.
On 20 September 2003 he took position against the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...
and founded the "Comité national pour la victoire du vote NON" ("National committee for victory of NO votes").
In 2004, he founded the "National Committee for Defense of Communes and Public Services" (Comité de défense des communes et des services publics).
On 18 November, he was selected as candidate supported by a "Comité National pour la reconquête de la démocratie" ("National Committee for reconquest of Democracy").
On 16 March 2008 he was re-elected as mayor of Mailhac
Mailhac
Mailhac is a commune in the Aude department in southern France.-Population:-Personalities:Its mayor, Gérard Schivardi, was a candidate in the French presidential election of 2007 but lost the election....
, Aude
Aude
Aude is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother...
.
French presidential election of 2007
Schivardi was one of the twelve candidates for the 2007 French presidential electionFrench presidential election, 2007
The 2007 French presidential election, the ninth of the Fifth French Republic was held to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term.The winner, decided on 5 and 6 May 2007, was Nicolas Sarkozy...
. He was the first "small" candidate to obtain the 500 sponsorships from elected officials which are necessary to become an official candidate.
Schivardi claimed to be an "authentic socialist, independent and no affiliate". He attempted to run as "the mayors' candidate" (le candidat des maires), but was barred from doing so after the prime association of French mayors, the Association des Maires de France, obtained an injunction against Schivardi. A similar decision was reached by the commission overseeing the "official campaign" of the election; an appeal against this decision was rejected by the Constitutional Council.
Schivardi then changed his slogan to candidat de maires, which may be translated as "candidate of some mayors".
The key proposal of Schivardi's programme was that France should withdraw from the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and construct a "Europe of free people and free nations". Several proposals in Schivardi's program, including the election of a new national assembly to suppress the French Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
's institutions, echo those of Daniel Gluckstein in 2002.
In addition to his far-left-wing base of syndicalists and Workers' Party
Workers' Party (France)
The Workers' Party was a French socialist party. It was formed by the Trotskyist Internationalist Communist Party led by Pierre Boussel, better known under his pseudonym Pierre Lambert, together with a number of other socialists with whom they worked in the Force Ouvrière union...
militants, Schivardi was supported by some mayors affiliated of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
, French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
, Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
or Union for French Democracy
Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy was a French centrist political party. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to counterbalance the Gaullist preponderance over the right. This name was chosen due to the title of Giscard d'Estaing's...
, who don't support the communal policy of their parties.
Schivardi's official site and documentation said that he was supported by the Workers' Party
Workers' Party (France)
The Workers' Party was a French socialist party. It was formed by the Trotskyist Internationalist Communist Party led by Pierre Boussel, better known under his pseudonym Pierre Lambert, together with a number of other socialists with whom they worked in the Force Ouvrière union...
, but he denied being a member of that party, or a trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
.