* 2003: Éloge des voleurs de feu ( NRF-Gallimard, 2003 ), in English On Poetry, which is some reflections on the subject ; Villepin is said to have worked on the final draft during the UN session where the French successfully blocked authorization of the 2003 War in Iraq.

* France-On 20 January 2003, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said, " We think that military intervention would be the worst possible solution ," although France believed that Iraq may have had an ongoing chemical and nuclear weapons program.

Following from these events, Villepin lost all hopes of winning the presidency, and his government no longer tried to enact reforms.

On 20 June 2006, during the questions to government in the National Assembly, Dominique de Villepin accused head of the Socialist Party François Hollande of cowardice.

Villepin declared that lowering unemployment was the number one objective of his government ( which had also been stated by other prime ministers before him, albeit to no avail ).

* Head of government: Laurent Fabius ( France ), Michel Rocard ( France ), Édouard Balladur ( France ), Alain Juppé ( France ), Lionel Jospin ( France ), Dominique de Villepin ( France ), Edem Kodjo ( Togo ), Alfred Sant ( Malta ), André Milongo ( Republic of the Congo ), Patrick Leclercq ( Monaco ), Jean-Paul Proust ( Monaco ), Brigi Rafini ( Niger ).

In 2005, a labour conflict at the SNCM in Marseille, followed by a 4 October 2005 demonstration against the New Employment Contract ( CNE ) marked the opposition to Dominique de Villepin's right-wing government ; Villepin shared his authority with Nicolas Sarkozy, who, as Minister of the Interior and leader of the right-wing UMP, was already a probable 2007 presidential candidate.

The failure of the referendum on the European Constitution of 25 May 2005 led to the fall of the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and to the formation of a new cabinet, presided by another UMP politician, Dominique de Villepin.

He served in this function until 5 June 2005 when upon the establishment of the new government under Dominique de Villepin he was replaced by Philippe Douste-Blazy.

The report accused the French government of knowing of preparations for the genocide and helping to train the ethnic Hutu militia members ; it accused 33 senior French military and political officials of involvement in the genocide, including then-President Mitterrand and his then general secretary Hubert Védrine, then-Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, then-Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, and his chief aide at the time, Dominique de Villepin.

Despite his 16 February 2004, conviction, he was, on 31 March, appointed Minister of Culture and communication in the third cabinet of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and was kept at this position on 2 June 2005, for the government of Dominique de Villepin.

She kept the Defense portfolio in Jean-Pierre Raffarin ’ s three governments and in Dominique de Villepin ’ s government.

* 31 May-A new government, headed by Dominique de Villepin, is nominated.

It's the origin of the affair Clearstream 2 that stroke the government of Dominique de Villepin in May 2006.

De Villepin detailed the three major risks of a " premature recourse to the military option ", especially the " incalculable consequences for the stability of this scarred and fragile region ".

The subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reassured the authorities about the project ; especially in February 2003, when the American broadcasters CNN, FOX News and MSNBC opted not to broadcast the long applause given by the members of the United Nations Security Council after Dominique de Villepin gave his address on the Iraq conflict.

In the recent bicentennial, however, controversy erupted when neither French president Jacques Chirac nor prime minister Dominique de Villepin attended any functions commemorating the battle.

The list was later shown to be fraudulent, a discovery Villepin kept from the public for 15 months at a time when the two men were vying for party supremacy.

When the decision to expel him was overturned by the courts, because of the journalistic reporting of LyonMag was deemed biaised, Villepin pushed a change of the law through Parliament, and Bouziane was sent home.

Villepin was indicted in connection with the Clearstream affair, but was subsequently cleared of charges of complicity in allowing false accusations to proceed against presidential rival Nicolas Sarkozy regarding bribes paid on a sale of warships to Taiwan.

Villepin was born in Rabat, Morocco and spent some time in Venezuela, where his family lived for four years.

His great-grandfather was a colonel in the French army, his grandfather was a board member for several companies, and his father Xavier de Villepin, now retired, was a diplomat and a member of the Senate.

Villepin was introduced to Jacques Chirac in the early 1980s and became one of his advisers on foreign policy.

Villepin then became director of Chirac's successful 1995 presidential campaign and was rewarded with the key job of Secretary-General of the Élysée Palace during Chirac's first term as President of the Republic ( 1995 – 2002 ).

Villepin offered Chirac his resignation afterwards, but it was turned down.

During mid-2003 Villepin organized the Opération 14 juillet that attempted to rescue his former student, Ingrid Betancourt, who was being held by FARC rebels in Colombia.

During the cabinet reshuffle that made Nicolas Sarkozy Finance Minister, Villepin was appointed to replace him as Interior Minister on 31 March 2004.

President Chirac was at one point thought to have turned his eye on Villepin as a possible successor, assuming that he himself would not enter the 2007 presidential contest.

There was speculation that Villepin might be a candidate in the 2007 Presidential election ; however, interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was selected unopposed as the UMP's presidential candidate on 14 January 2007.

During the protests, Villepin was widely perceived as stubborn and arrogant.

On 15 May 2007, the last full day of President Jacques Chirac's term, Villepin tendered his resignation from the office of Prime Minister and it was accepted by the President.

Villepin is not the first " unelected " prime minister, even in the relatively short history of the Fifth Republic: notable predecessors include Georges Pompidou, who was a banker before being called to office, and Raymond Barre, who had a previous career as a professor and appointed official, and started an elected career only after being Prime minister.

On Thursday, 28 January 2010 the judgement was finally handed down and Villepin was acquitted of every accusation against him in the affair.

Others on the right ( including Dominique de Villepin ) as well as some on the left argue in favour of gradual reforms.

Villepin studied at the Institut d ' Études Politiques de Paris ( Sciences-Po ) and went on to the École nationale d ' administration ( ENA ), France's highly selective post-graduate school which trains its top civil servants.

At the end of his studies he completed his military service as a naval officer on board the Aircraft Carrier Clemenceau, Villepin then entered a career in diplomacy.

Villepin's flawed advice on the election increased the perception among many politicians on the right that Villepin had no experience or understanding of grassroots politics, and owed his enviable position only to being Chirac's protégé.

Prime Minister Villepin refused to withdraw the CPE but called for negotiations on adapting it.

* 2003: Un autre monde ( l ' Herne, 2003 ), preface by Stanley Hoffmann, translator, Toward a new world: speeches, essays, and interviews on the war in Iraq, the UN, and the changing face of Europe ( Melville House Publishing, c2004 ), a selection of speeches by Villepin as Foreign Minister, with commentary by Hoffman, Susan Sontag, Carlos Fuentes, Norman Mailer, Régis Debray, Mario Vargas Llosa, others.

* 2004: Preface to Mehdi Qotbi: le voyage de l ' écriture ( Paris: Somogy, 2004 – Paris: Somogy, 2005 ), " published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by the Institut Français du Nord and Attijariwafa Bank, presented at the Galerie Delacroix of the Institut français du Nord at Tangiers from 25 June to 5 September 2004 and at the Espace d ' Art Actua of the Attijariwafa Bank, Casablanca, Oct – Dec 2004 " – Villepin has a personal connection with the Maghreb and the Third World – " born in Rabat, raised in Latin America ", as the bios put it ;

Raffarin's resignation was accepted by President Chirac on 30 May 2005, after the " no " victory at the European Constitution referendum, and he was replaced as Prime Minister by Dominique de Villepin.

"– Dominique de Villepin, French Foreign Minister, at the United Nations Security Council on February 14, 2003

Villepin went on to say that he believed the presence of UN weapons inspectors had frozen Iraq's weapons programs.

The most important French speech during the crisis was made by De Villepin at the Security Council on the 14 February 2003, after Hans Blix presented his detailed report ( see below ).

Likewise, while prime ministers are usually chosen from amongst the ranks of the National Assembly, on rare occasions the President has selected a non-officeholder because of their experience in bureaucraty or foreign service, or their success in business management — Dominique de Villepin, for example, served as prime minister from 2005 to 2007 without ever having held elected office.

His funeral on 26 January 2007 at the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was attended by numerous distinguished people: President Jacques Chirac, former President Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, many French Ministers, and of course the Companions of Emmaus, who were placed at the front of the congregation in the cathedral, according to Abbé Pierre's last wishes.

When the UN Security Council discussed Iraq on February 14, 2003, the French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin ended his speech with the words: " This message comes to you today from an old country, France, from a continent like mine, Europe, that has known wars, occupation and barbarity.