Name	Jean-Marie Le Pen
Office1	Président du Front National
Term start1	5 October 1972
Office2	Member of the European Parliament for France
Term start2	10 June 2004
Term start3	1984
Term end3	February 2003
Office4	Member of the French National Assembly for Paris
Term start4	1986
Term end4	1988
Term start5	1956
Term end5	1962
Office6	Municipal councillor for 20th arrondissement of Paris
Term start6	1983
Term end6	1989
Office7	Regional councillor for Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Term start7	21 March 2010
Term start8	1992
Term end8	2000
Birth date	June 20, 1928
Birth place	La Trinité-sur-Mer, Brittany, France
Nationality	France
Party	National Front
Spouse	1) Pierrette Lalanne (1960-1987) 2) Jeanne-Marie Paschos (1991-present)
Children	Three daughters, including Marine Le Pen
Religion	Roman Catholic

Jean-Marie Le Pen (; born 20 June 1928) is a French conservative and nationalist politician who is founder and president of the Front National (National Front) party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than the main left candidate, Lionel Jospin. Le Pen lost in the second round to Jacques Chirac. Le Pen again ran in the 2007 French presidential election and finished fourth. His 2007 campaign, at the age of 78 years and 9 months, makes him the oldest candidate for presidential office in France.

Le Pen focuses on immigration to France, the European Union, traditional culture, law and order and France's high rate of unemployment. He advocates immigration restrictions, the death penalty, raising incentives for homemakers, and euroscepticism. He strongly opposes same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and abortion.

Personal life and early career

Le Pen was born in La Trinité-sur-Mer, a small seaside village in Brittany, the son of a fisherman but then orphaned as an adolescent (pupille de la nation, brought up by the state), when his father's boat was blown up by a mine in 1942. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and studied at the Jesuit high school François Xavier in Vannes, then at the lycée of Lorient.

Aged 16, he was turned down (because of his age) by Colonel Henri de La Vaissière (then representative of the Communist Youth) when he attempted, in November 1944, to join the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). He then entered the faculty of law in Paris, and started to sell the monarchist Action française's newspaper, "Aspects de la France", in the street. He was repeatedly convicted of assault (coups et blessures). He was then sent to Algeria (1957) as an intelligence officer. He has been accused of having engaged in torture, but he denied it, although he admitted knowing of its use.

In the early 1980s, Le Pen's personal security was assured by KO International Company, a subsidiary of VHP Security, a private security firm, and an alleged front organisation for SAC, the Service d'Action Civique (Civic Action Service), a Gaullist organisation. SAC allegedly employed figures with organized crime backgrounds and from the far-right movement.

On 31 May 1991, Jean-Marie Le Pen married Jeanne-Marie Paschos ("Jany"), of Greek descent. Born in 1933, Paschos was previously married to Belgian businessman Jean Garnier.

Le Pen is the godfather of the third daughter of Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a comedian and political activist of French-African descent who moved from fighting the Front National to being very close to most of its senior members.

Le Pen wears an ocular prosthetic.

Political career

, predicting the now unrealised possibility of Jean-Marie Le Pen becoming President in 2007]] Le Pen started his political career as the head of the student union in Toulouse. In 1953, a year before the beginning of the Algerian War, he contacted President Vincent Auriol, who approved Le Pen's proposed volunteer disaster relief project after a flood in the Netherlands. Within two days, there were 40 volunteers from his university, a group that would later help victims of an earthquake in Italy. In Paris in 1956, he was elected to the National Assembly as a member of Pierre Poujade's UDCA populist party. Le Pen, 28 years old, was the youngest member of the Assembly.

In 1957, he became the General Secretary of the National Front of Combatants, a veterans' organization, as well as the first French politician to nominate a Muslim candidate, Ahmed Djebbour, an Algerian, elected in 1957 as deputy of Paris. The next year, following his break with Poujade, Le Pen was reelected to the National Assembly as a member of the Centre National des Indépendants et Paysans (CNIP) party, led by Antoine Pinay. Le Pen claimed that he had lost his left eye when he was savagely beaten during the 1958 election campaign. Testimonies suggest however that he was only wounded in the right eye and did not lose it. He lost the sight in his left eye years later, due to an illness. (Popular belief that he wears a glass eye is untrue.) During the 1950s, Le Pen took a close interest in the Algerian war (1954–62) and the French defense budget.

Le Pen directed the 1965 presidential campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, who obtained 5.19% of the votes. He insisted on the rehabilitation of the Collaborationists, declaring that:

"Was General de Gaulle more brave than the Marshall Pétain in the occupied zone? This isn't sure. It was much easier to resist in London than to resist in France." In 1992 and 1998 he was elected to the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur.

Le Pen ran in the French presidential elections in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. As noted above, he was not able to run for office in 1981, having failed to gather the necessary 500 signatures of elected officials. In the presidential elections of 2002, Le Pen obtained 16.86% of the votes in the first round of voting. This was enough to qualify him for the second round, as a result of the poor showing by the PS candidate and incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin and the scattering of votes among 15 other candidates. This was a major political event, both nationally and internationally, as it was the first time someone with such radical views had qualified for the second round of the French presidential elections. There was a widespread stirring of national public opinion, and more than one million people in France took part in street rallies; slogans such as "vote for the crook, not the fascist" were heard in an expression of fierce opposition to Le Pen's ideas. Le Pen was then defeated by a large margin in the second round, when incumbent president Jacques Chirac obtained 82% of the votes, thus securing the biggest majority in the history of the Fifth Republic.

In the 2004 regional elections, Le Pen intended to run for office in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region but was prevented from doing so because he did not meet the conditions for being a voter in that region: he neither lived there nor was registered as a taxpayer there. However, he will be the FN's top candidate in the region for the 2010 regional elections.

Political career

Electoral mandates

European Parliament

*Member of European Parliament: 1984-2003 (Sentenced by the courts in 2003); 2004-

National Assembly of France

*President of the group of National Front (France): 1986-1988

Member of the National Assembly of France for Paris: 1956-1962; 1986–1988

Regional Council

*Regional councillor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur: 1992-2000 (sentenced by the courts in 2000)

Municipal Council

*Municipal councillor for the 20th arrondissement of Paris: 1983-1989

Political functions

*President of the National Front: 1972-2011

Issues

:See also National Front for a summary of Le Pen's manifesto.

Le Pen remains a polarizing figure in France, and opinions regarding him tend to be quite strong. A 2002 IPSOS poll showed that while 22% of the electorate have a good or very good opinion of Le Pen, and 13% an unfavorable opinion, 61% have a very unfavorable opinion.

Le Pen and the National Front are described by much of the media and nearly all commentators as far right. Le Pen himself and the rest of his party disagree with this label; earlier in his political career, Le Pen described his position as "neither left nor right, but French" (ni droite, ni gauche, français). He later described his position as right-wing and opposed to the "socialo-communists" and other right-wing parties, which he deems are not real right-wing parties. At other times, for example during the 2002 election campaign, he declared himself "socially left-wing, economically right-wing, nationally French" (socialement à gauche, économiquement à droite, nationalement français). He further contends that most of the French political and media class are corrupt and out of touch with the real needs of the common people, and conspire to exclude Le Pen and his party from mainstream politics. Le Pen criticizes the other political parties as the "establishment" and lumped all major parties (Communist, Socialist, Union for French Democracy (UDF) and Rally for the Republic (RPR)) into the "Gang of Four" (la bande des quatre – an allusion to the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution).

The international media often cites Le Pen as a symbol of French xenophobia. He is also occasionally criticized in French and foreign pop songs.

Controversial statements

Le Pen has been accused and convicted several times at home and abroad of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. A Paris court found in February 2005 that his verbal criticisms, such as remarks disparaging Muslims in a 2003 "Le Monde" interview, were "inciting racial hatred",

* In May 1987, he advocated the forced isolation from society of all people infected with HIV, by placing them in a special "sidatorium". In the same interview he incorrectly declared that AIDS was a form of leprosy. "Sidaïque" is Le Pen's pejorative solecism for "person infected with AIDS" (the more usual French term is "séropositif" (seropositive) Le Pen once made the infamous pun "Durafour-crématoire" ("four crématoire" meaning "crematory oven") about then-minister Michel Durafour, who had said in public a few days before, "One must exterminate the National Front". This was made in reference to the crematories in which both living and dead victims of the Nazi holocaust were placed In June 2006, he claimed that the French World Cup squad contained too many non-white players, and was not an accurate reflection of French society. He went on to scold players for not singing La Marseillaise, saying they were not "French". In the 2007 election campaign, he referred to fellow-candidate Nicolas Sarkozy as "foreign" or "the foreigner" due to Sarkozy's Hungarian, Greek, and Sephardic Jewish ancestry.

Arguing that his party includes people of various ethnic or religious origins like Jean-Pierre Cohen, Farid Smahi or Huguette Fatna, he has attributed some anti-Semitism in France to the effects of Muslim immigration to Europe and suggested that some part of the Jewish community in France might eventually come to appreciate National Front ideology.

Prosecution concerning historical revisionism and Holocaust denial

Le Pen has made several provocative statements concerning the Holocaust, which amount to historical revisionism, and has been convicted of racism or inciting racial hatred at least six times. In 1997, the European Parliament, of which Le Pen was then a member, removed his parliamentary immunity so that Le Pen could be tried by a German court for comments he made at a December 1996 press conference before the German Republikaner party. Echoing his 1987 remarks in France, Le Pen stated: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. This is what one calls a detail." In June 1999, a Munich court found this statement to be "minimizing the Holocaust, which caused the deaths of six million Jews," and convicted and fined Le Pen for his remarks.

Prosecution, allegations of torture and association with militarists

In April 2000, Le Pen was suspended from the European Parliament following prosecution for the physical assault of Socialist candidate Annette Peulvast-Bergeal during the 1997 general election. This ultimately led to him losing his seat in the European parliament in 2003. The Versailles appeals court banned him from seeking office for one year.

In 2005 and 2008, Le Pen was fined, in both case 10,000 euros for “incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence towards a group of people”, on account of statements made about Muslims in France. In 2010. the European Court of Human Rights declared Le Pen's application inadmissible.

Le Pen allegedly practiced torture during the Algerian War (1954–1962), when he was a lieutenant in the French Army. Although he denied it, he lost a trial when he attacked Le Monde newspaper on charges of defamation, following accusations by the newspaper that he had used torture. Le Monde has produced in May 2003 the dagger he allegedly used to commit war crimes as court evidence.

Although war crimes committed during the Algerian War are amnestied in France, this was publicised by the newspapers Le Canard Enchaîné, Libération, and Le Monde, and by Michel Rocard (ex-Prime Minister) on TV (TF1 1993). Le Pen sued the papers and Michel Rocard. This affair ended in 2000 when the Cour de cassation (French supreme jurisdiction) concluded that it was legitimate to publish these assertions. However, because of the amnesty and the statute of limitations, there can be no criminal proceedings against Le Pen for the crimes he is alleged to have committed in Algeria. In 1995, Le Pen unsuccessfully sued Jean Dufour, regional counselor of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (French Communist Party) for the same reason.

Le Pen has also been criticized for ties to "suspect" individuals, such as: Roger Holeindre, a member of the political bureau of the Front National and a former member of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), a movement against Algerian independence. However, Holeindre was also a Nazi resister during the Second World War

Roland Gaucher, a cofounder of the National Front in 1972, who was also a former RNP member.

Comments on the Right

Some of Le Pen's statements led other right-wing groups, such as the Austrian Freedom Party, and some National Front supporters to distance themselves from him. Bruno Mégret left the National Front to found his own party (the National Republican Movement, MNR), claiming that Le Pen kept the Front away from the possibility of gaining power. Mégret wanted to emulate Gianfranco Fini's success in Italy by making it possible for right-wing parties to ally themselves with the Front, but claimed that Le Pen's attitude and outrageous speech prevented this. Le Pen's daughter Marine leads an internal movement of the Front that wants to "normalize" the National Front, "de-enclave" it, have a "culture of government" etc.; however, relations with Le Pen and other supporters of the hard line are complex. Over the years, Le Pen gained widespread popularity among neo-Nazis and white nationalists throughout Europe and North America.

As Le Pen, like many other European nationalists in recent years, has made statements highly critical of American foreign policy and culture for which he has received notice from American conservatives. Conservative author Ann Coulter called him an anti-American adulterer but said his anti-immigration, anti-Muslim message "finally hit a nerve with voters" after years of irrelevance. Paleoconservative commentator Pat Buchanan contends that even though Le Pen "made radical and foolish statements," the EU violated his right to freedom of speech. Buchanan wrote:

As it is often the criminal himself who is first to cry, "Thief!" so it is usually those who scream, "Fascist!" loudest who are the quickest to resort to anti-democratic tactics. Today, the greatest threat to the freedom and independence of the nations of Europe comes not from Le Pen and that 17% of French men and women who voted for him. It comes from an intolerant European Establishment that will accept no rollback of its powers or privileges, nor any reversal of policies it deems "progressive".

See also

Politics of France

History of far right movements in France

Yasukuni Shrine

Uyoku dantai

References

External links

Le Pen on Al Jazeera English's Riz Khan show

Official 2007 Campaign site

FYI France, "The Front National" (extensive bibliography, works in English, French, etc.)

Jean-Marie Le Pen, biography and the French election in 2002 in French

Jean Marie Le Pen - Blog

2002 interview with Le Pen

Jews for Le Pen

Category:1928 births Category:Living people Category:People from Morbihan Category:Anti-globalist activists Category:Candidates for the French presidential election, 2007 Category:French anti-communists Category:French military personnel of the Algerian War Category:French military personnel of the First Indochina War Category:French Roman Catholics Category:French Traditionalist Catholics Category:MEPs for France 1984–1989 Category:MEPs for France 1989–1994 Category:MEPs for France 1994–1999 Category:MEPs for France 1999–2004 Category:MEPs for South-East France 2004–2009 Category:MEPs for South-East France 2009–2014 Category:National Front (France) MEPs Category:People convicted of assault Category:French people of Breton descent Category:People convicted of Holocaust denial offenses Category:Politicians of the French Fifth Republic Category:Politicians with physical disabilities Category:Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion Category:National Front (France) politicians Category:Opposition against Islam in Europe Category:Right-wing populism

Name	Sophie Marceau
Caption	Marceau in 2010
Birth name	Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu
Birth date	November 17, 1966
Birth place	Paris, France
Partner	Andrzej Żuławski (1985–2001) Jim Lemley Christopher Lambert (2007–present)
Years active	1980–present

Sophie Marceau (; born 17 November 1966) is a French actress, who has appeared in 35 films. During her teens, Marceau achieved popularity by her debut films La Boum (1980) and La Boum 2 (1982), for which she received a César Award for Most Promising Actress. In addition to her French language films, she has worked in international films such as Braveheart (1995) and as the main antagonist Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough (1999).

Early life

Marceau was born Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu in Paris, France, the second child of Simone (née Morisset), a shop assistant, and Benoît Maupu, a truck driver. The family lived a working-class existence that left Marceau with generally fond memories of childhood. During the week, she helped at the family restaurant. She spent weekends with her family in La Cabane, a small house in Vert-le-Petit in the department Essonne. Her parents divorced when she was nine.

Career

In February 1980, Marceau and her mother came across a model agency looking for teenagers. Marceau had photos taken at the agency but did not think anything would come of it. At the same time, Françoise Menidrey, the casting director for Claude Pinoteau's La Boum (1980), asked modeling agencies to recommend a new teenager for the project. After viewing the rushes, Alain Poiré, the director of the Gaumont Film Company, signed Marceau to a long-term contract. La Boum was a hit not only in France, where 4.5 million tickets were sold, but several other European countries and Japan.

In 1981, Marceau made her singing debut with French singer François Valéry on "Dream in Blue," written by Delanoë.

Early film career

In 1982, at the age of 15, Marceau bought back her contract with Gaumont for one million French francs. She borrowed most of the money. After starring in the sequel film La Boum 2 in 1982, Marceau focused on more dramatic roles, including Fort Saganne (co-starring Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve) and Joyeuse Pâques (Happy Easter) in 1984, L'Amour Braque and Police in 1985, and Descente aux Enfers (Descent Into Hell) in 1986. In 1988, she starred in L'Etudiante (The Student) and Chouans!. That year, Marceau was named Best Romantic Actress at the International Festival of Romantic Movies for her role in Chouans.

In 1989, she starred in Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours (My Nights are more Beautiful than your Days), which was directed by her long-time boyfriend Andrzej Zulawski. In 1990, she starred in Pacific Palisades and La Note Bleue, her third film directed by her companion. In 1991, she ventured into the theater in Eurydice, which earned Marceau the Moliere Award for Best Female Newcomer.}}

In 2002, Marceau made her directorial debut in the feature film Speak to Me of Love for which she was named Best Director at the Montreal World Film Festival. The film starred Judith Godrèche. It was her second effort at directing (she made the nine-minute short film L'Aube à l'envers in 1995, which also starred Godrèche).

Personal life

Marceau had a 17 year relationship with director Andrzej Żuławski, who is 26 years her senior. Their son Vincent was born in June 1995. In 2001, Marceau separated from Żuławski and became involved with producer Jim Lemley and later gave birth to her second child, Juliette, born in Paris in 2002.

Filmography

.]]

Actress

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;" |- ! style="background:#b0c4de;" | Title ! style="background:#b0c4de;" | Year ! style="background:#b0c4de;" | Role |- | La Boum (The Party) | (1980) | Victoire Beretton |- | La Boum 2 | (1982) | |- | Fort Saganne | (1984) | Madeleine de Saint-Ilette |- | Joyeuses Pâques (Happy Easter) | (1984) | Julie |- | L'Amour braque (Mad Love) | (1985) | Mary |- | Police (Police) | (1985) | Norya |- | Descente aux enfers (Descent Into Hell) | (1986) | Lola Kolber |- | L'Étudiante (The Student) | (1988) | Valentine Ezquerra |- | Chouans! | (1988) | Céline |- | Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours (My Nights are more Beautiful than your Days) | (1989) | Blanche |- | Pacific Palisades | (1990) | Bernadette |- | Pour Sacha (For Sacha) | (1991) | Laura |- | La Note bleue (The Blue Note) | (1991) | Solange Sand |- | Fanfan (Fanfan & Alexandre) | (1993) | Fanfan |- | La Fille de d'Artagnan (D'Artagnan's Daughter) | (1994) | Eloïse d'Artagnan |- | Braveheart | (1995) | Princess Isabelle |- | Beyond the Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole) | (1995) | |- | Anna Karenina | (1997) | Anna Karenina |- | Marquise | (1997, by Véra Belmont) | Marquise du Parc |- | Firelight | (1997, by William Nicholson) | Élisabeth Laurier |- | Lost & Found | (1999) | Lila Dubois] |- | A Midsummer Night's Dream | (1999) | Hippolyta |- | The World Is Not Enough | (1999) | Elektra King |- | La Fidélité (Fidelity) | (2000) | Clélia |- | Belphégor – Le fantôme du Louvre (Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre) | (2001) | Lisa |- | Alex and Emma | (2003) | Polina Delacroix |- | Je reste! | (2003) | Marie-Dominique Delpire |- | Les clefs de bagnole (The Car Keys) | (2003) | |- | A ce soir | (2004) | Nelly |- | Anthony Zimmer | (2005) | Chiara Manzoni |- | La Disparue de Deauville | (2007) | Lucie/Victoria |- | Les Femmes de l'Ombre (Female Agents) | (2008) | |- | LOL (Laughing Out Loud) | (2008) | |- | De l'autre côté du lit | (2008) | |- | Don't Look Back | (2009) | |- | L'homme de Chevet (Cartagena) | (2009) | |- | L'âge de raison | (2010) | |}

Writer and director

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;" |- ! style="background:#b0c4de;" | Title ! style="background:#b0c4de;" | Year |- | L'Aube à l'envers (short film) | (1995) |- | Speak to Me of Love | (2002) |- | La Disparue de Deauville | (2007) |}

References

External links

Sophie Marceau fans community

Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:People from Paris Category:French child actors Category:French film actors Category:French film directors

Rizwan "Riz" Khan (born April 1962) is a Yemeni-born British Asian television news reporter and interviewer, who first rose to prominence while working for the BBC and CNN. He currently hosts his own television show on Al Jazeera English.

Life and career

Khan was born in Aden to a Punjabi father and Gujarati mother. His father's roots hail from Pakistan administered Kashmir while his mother's roots go back to Kutch, which is in Gujarat. Khan moved with his family to London, England at the age of four. He attended both Springwell Junior and Hounslow Manor Comprehensive Schools and joined the Air Training Corps, graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Medical Physiology from the University of Wales, and then completed a postgraduate course in Radio Journalism at the University of Portsmouth.

In 1987 he was selected for the BBC News Trainee scheme - a two year BBC training system, usually taking only 6 people per course. Khan progressed to jobs as a BBC Reporter, Producer, and Writer, working in both television and radio, and would later become one of the founding News Presenters on BBC World Service Television News. He hosted the news bulletin that launched BBC World Service Television News in 1991. In 1993, he moved to CNN International, where he became a senior anchor for the network's global news shows. Events he covered included the 1996 and 1999 coverage of elections in India; the 1997 historic election in Britain; and in April 1998 the unprecedented live coverage from the Muslim pilgrimage, the Hajj.

In 1996 he launched his interactive interview show CNN: Q&A; with Riz Khan, and he has conducted interviews with guests including former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela, and genomic scientist J. Craig Venter. Khan also secured the world exclusive with Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf following his coup in October 1999. Khan also hosted Q&A-Asia; with Riz Khan. These interactive shows put world newsmakers and celebrities up for viewer questions live by phone, e-mail, video-mail and fax, along with questions and comments taken from the real-time chatroom that opens half-an-hour before each show.

Khan currently hosts the Riz Khan Show on Al Jazeera English. On his show, Khan interviews analysts and policy makers and allows viewers to interact with them via phone, email, SMS messages or fax.

Khan speaks Urdu and Hindi, and also understands other South Asian languages such as Punjabi and Kutchi. He has studied French, and can understand some other European languages, including Swedish.

In 2005 he authored his first book, Al-Waleed: Businessman Billionaire Prince, published by Harper Collins.

References

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB111862259989457599-Ihjg4Nllad4n5yqZ4KHcKiJm5.html "Why I'm Joining Al Jazeera," op-ed by Riz Khan, Wall Street Journal 13 June 2005, p. A1

http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20010219/mscape2.shtml

External links

Riz Khan's official website

Profile at Al Jazeera English

MySpace Profile

Interview with Baron Dave Romm of KFAI-FM at the Republican National Convention Sept. 2, 2008 and picture

Category:1962 births Category:Al Jazeera people Category:Alumni of Cardiff University Category:Alumni of the University of Portsmouth Category:British Muslims Category:British people of Indian descent Category:English people of Pakistani descent Category:British journalists Category:British television presenters Category:Living people Category:Punjabi people Category:Gujarati people Category:People from Aden

Pierre Desproges (May 9, 1939 – April 18, 1988) was a French humorist. He was famous for his elaborate, eloquent and above all, virulent diatribes criticizing anything and everything. He was born in Pantin, Seine-Saint-Denis. According to himself, he made no significant achievements before the age of 30. From 1967 to 1970, he worked as: life insurance salesman, opinion pool investigator, "lonely hearts" columnist, horse racing forecaster, and sales manager for a styrofoam beam company.

From 1970 to 1976, he worked for the newspaper L'Aurore. Starting in 1975, he became a "reporter" on Le petit rapporteur (The Little Snitch), a satirical TV show hosted by Jacques Martin . He caught the public's attention with unconventional interviews of celebrities, among them novelists Françoise Sagan or Jean-Edern Hallier.

He appeared for the first time on stage at the Olympia theater during a Thierry Le Luron show. Among other things, he became very famous for his Chroniques de la haine ordinaire (Chronicles of Ordinary Hatred), a 1986 radio show.

In the 1980s, he appeared daily on Le tribunal des flagrants délires (a pun on the French term "flagrant délit" meaning red-handed), a comedy show where celebrities were judged in mock-trials. Desproges held the part of the prosecutor for more than two years, a part for which his verve, his scathing humour and his literary erudition were ideally suited.

In 1982, he created La minute nécessaire de Monsieur Cyclopède, a series of shorts for TV, where he played an omniscient professor. He would answer to metaphysical and nonsensical questions such as "How to make King Louis XVI fireproof?", proved that Beethoven was not deaf but stupid, and explained why the improbable encounter between the Venus de Milo and Saint Exupéry's 'Petit Prince' was a fiasco.

In 1984, he had his first stand-up show at the Théâtre Fontaine. In 1986, his second stand-up, Pierre Desproges se donne en spectacle was presented at the Théâtre Grévin.

He died in 1988 from lung cancer, a disease he had bitterly laughed at time and time again, often saying "I won't have cancer: I'm against it". He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Books

"Le petit rapporteur" (1999) (The Little Snitch)

"La seule certitude que j'ai, c'est d'être dans le doute" (1998) (The Only Certainty I Have, Is to Be in Doubt)

"Les bons conseils du professeur Corbiniou" (1997) (The Good Advice of Professor Corbiniou)

"La minute nécessaire de Monsieur Cyclopède" (1995) (The Necessary Minute of Mr Cyclopede)

"Les étrangers sont nuls" (1992) (Foreigners Are Worthless)

"Fond de tiroir" (1990) (Drawer Bottom)

"L'almanach" (1989) (The Almanac)

"Textes de scène" (1988) (Stand-up Texts)

"Des femmes qui tombent" (1985) (Falling Women)

"Dictionnaire superflu à l'usage de l'élite et des biens-nantis" (1985) (Superfluous Dictionary for the Elite and the Well-to-do)

"Vivons heureux en attendant la mort" (1983) (Let Us Live Happily While We're Waiting for Death)

"Manuel de savoir-vivre à l'usage des rustres et des malpolis" (1981) (Handbook of Good Manners for the Uncouth and the Impolite)

External links

Official website

Category:French comedians Category:1939 births Category:1988 deaths Category:People from Seine-Saint-Denis Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:Black comedy

Honorific-suffix	MEP
Office1	Leader of the Party of European Socialists
Term start1	July 5, 2004
Predecessor1	Enrique Baron Crespo
Constituency mp2	Germany
Parliament2	European
Term start2	July 19, 1994
Office3	Mayor of Würselen
Term start3	1987
Term end3	1998
Birth date	December 20, 1955
Birth place	Hehlrath, Germany
Nationality	German
Party	SPD / PES
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Bookseller, Politician
Website	http://www.martin-schulz.info

Martin Schulz (born on 20 December 1955 in Hehlrath) is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party of Germany, since 2004 gauleiter of the Socialists in the European Parliament (formerly called the Party of European Socialists group and since 2009 called the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats).

Career

1975-1977: Apprentice bookseller

1977-1982: Worked in various bookshops and publishing houses

1982-1994: Bookshop proprietor

1991-1999: Member of the SPD Party Council

since 1995: Member of the Mittelrhein SPD Executive

since 1996: Chairman of the Aachen District SPD

since 1999: Member of the SPD Federal Executive

1984-1999: Municipal Councillor, Würselen

1987-1998: Mayor of Würselen

since 1994: Member of the European Parliament

1994-1996: PES Group coordinator, Subcommittee on Human Rights

1996-2000: PES Group coordinator, Committee on Civil Liberties and Home Affairs

2000-2004: Chairman of the SPD group, European Parliament

2002-2004: First Vice-Chairman of the PES Group

since 2009: Chairman of the PES Group

Berlusconi Incident

On July 2, 2003, one day after taking over the rotating presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy was heavily criticised by MEP Martin Schulz because of Berlusconi's domestic policy. Berlusconi replied:

:"Signor Schulz, so che in Italia c'è un produttore che sta montando un film sui campi di concentramento nazisti: la suggerirò per il ruolo di kapò. Lei è perfetto!“

:In English: "Mister Schulz, I know of a movie-producer in Italy who is making a film about Nazi concentration-camps. I will recommend you for the part of a Kapo (concentration-camp inmate appointed as supervisor). You are perfect!"

Berlusconi later claimed he was referring to the comedy-series Hogan's Heroes, where a slow-witted character named Sgt. Hans Georg Schultz, played by John Banner, starred.

Even though Berlusconi insisted that he was just ironic, his comparisons with the Nazis caused a brief diplomatic rift between Italy and Germany.

References

External links

Official homepage

Website of Martin Schulz's political group in European Parliament

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Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:People from Eschweiler Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany MEPs Category:MEPs for Germany 2004–2009 Category:MEPs for Germany 1994–1999 Category:MEPs for Germany 1999–2004 Category:MEPs for Germany 2009–2014 Category:German politicians