Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Cannes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
About François Léotard
- François Gerard Marie Léotard (born 26 March 1942, in Cannes) is a retired French politician.
- Singer and actor Philippe Léotard (1940–2001) was his brother. Member of the Republican Party, the liberal-conservative component of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), he appeared in the foreground of the political scene in the 1980s.
- He led a new generation of right-wing politicians, the "renovationmen", who opposed the old right-wing leaders Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In 1981, he was selected to be one of the first Young Leaders of the French-American Foundation.
- His political career started with being elected as the Mayor of Fréjus in 1977.
- He served two terms as the deputy of Var.Culture Minister, from 1986 to 1988, he sold the main public TV channel TF1.
- He returned in the cabinet as Defense Minister, from 1993 to 1995.
- Supporting the candidacy of Edouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential election, he was dismissed after Chirac's election.
- Elected president of the UDF in 1996, he could not prevent the split of this confederation two years later with Alain Madelin's secession.
- This and the party's poor showing in the 1998 regional elections prompted his resignation.
- After a mission in Macedonia in 2001 as representative of the European Union, he retired from politics.
- In 2003, he created together with other prominent European personalities the Medbridge Strategy Center, whose goal is to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Europe and the Middle-East.
- He has since written several books.
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