Juppé, Alain

Juppé, Alain (älăN` zhüpā`), 1945–, French politician, b. Les Landes. A member of the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR), he entered the Inspection des Finances in 1972. A protegé of Jacques Chirac, he was in charge of the Paris city budget during Chirac's mayoralty and later followed his mentor into national office. During Chirac's premiership, Juppé was France's budget minister (1984–86) and government spokesman (1986–88). In 1993, Juppé became foreign minister under Édouard Balladur, then succeeded him as premier in 1995. That year he was also elected RPR president and mayor of Bordeaux, giving him strong national and local power bases. In 1997, however, the RPR was decisively defeated at the polls. From 2002 to 2004 he was chairman of the Union for the Presidential Majority (later the Union for a Popular Movement), the successor of the RPR. Juppé, still mayor of Bordeaux and a member of the National Assembly, was convicted on corruption inquiries relating to his Paris years in 2004, and subsequently resigned as mayor of Bordeaux and from the National Assembly.