Early beginnings When he was young, Longuet was part of a
far-right movement called
Occident. In 1968, he wrote the founding charter of the
Groupe Union Défense (GUD), a
far-right students' union.
Career in national politics Longuet served as a member of the
National Assembly for the
1st constituency for
Meuse from 1978 to 1981 and again from 1988 to 1993. In the government of
Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, Longuet first was Secretary of State for Posts and Telecommunications (March–August 1986) before becoming
Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (1986–1988). From 1990 to 1995, Longuet served as president of the
Republican Party (PR). During that time, he was also Minister of Industry, Posts and Telecommunications, and Foreign Trade in the government of
Prime Minister Édouard Balladur from 1993 until he resigned in 1994. Ahead of the
1995 presidential campaign, he supported Balladur as center-right candidate; instead,
Jacques Chirac won the party's nomination and later the election. On the regional level, Longuet was a
regional councillor of Lorraine from
1992 until his resignation in 2010. He served as president of the Regional Council of Lorraine from 1992 to
2004. From 2009 to 2011, Longuet served as the leader of the
Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in the
Senate.
Minister of Defence, 2011–2012 Shortly after taking office as Defence Minister under Prime Minister
François Fillon, Longuet oversaw the
French Air Force's involvement in the
2011 military intervention in Libya. After the mission ended, he met his Libyan counterpart
Osama al-Juwaili in 2012 to sign a letter of intent to improve maritime security and control Libya’s borders. Also early in his tenure, it was revealed that Longuet had spent a weekend in 2006 in a Tunisian palace at the expense of
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown shortly after by a popular revolt. In January 2012, President Sarkozy dispatched Longuet and the head of the French army to Afghanistan to conduct a review of security after an Afghan soldier killed four French service members. Shortly after, Longuet announced that France would withdraw its
combat forces from Afghanistan – at the time, 2,400 soldiers in
Kapisa Province – by 2013. Also in early 2012, Longuet led efforts on an agreement between France and Britain to jointly work to develop
unmanned drones as part of their military cooperation. Following the
2012 Malian coup d'état, Longuet rejected the desert
Tuaregs' declaration of independence for what they called the state of
Azawad.
Later career As part of a reorganisation of the UMP leadership under their leader
Jean-François Copé in January 2013, Longuet became – alongside
Christian Estrosi,
Henri de Raincourt,
Jean-Claude Gaudin,
Brice Hortefeux and
Roger Karoutchi – one of the party's six vice presidents and served until December 2014. Ahead of The Republicans'
2016 presidential primary, Longuet endorsed
François Fillon as the party's candidate for the
2017 French presidential election. From 2017 to 2020, Longuet served as president of the
Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST). ==Controversy==