Henri Guaino

Henri Guaino
Guaino in 2012
Member of the National Assembly for Yvelines's 3rd constituency
In office 20 June 2012 – 20 June 2017
Preceded by	Christian Blanc
Succeeded by	Béatrice Piron
Special Advisor to President of France
In office 16 May 2007 – 15 May 2012
President	Nicolas Sarkozy
Personal details
Born	(1957-03-11) 11 March 1957 Arles, France
Political party	The Republicans (since 2015)
Other political affiliations	Rally for the Republic (until 2002) Union for a Popular Movement (2002–2015)
Alma mater	Paris-Sorbonne University Sciences Po

Henri Guaino (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi ɡeno]; born 11 March 1957) is a French speechwriter and politician who served as the member of the National Assembly for the 3rd constituency of Yvelines from 2012 to 2017. A member of The Republicans (LR), he previously was a special advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 until the latter's retirement from politics following the 2012 election.

Career

Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy

Guaino was responsible for writing the Dakar address which Sarkozy delivered in 2007 and was criticised for being patronising towards the African continent.

National Assembly

In the 2012 legislative election, he was elected to the National Assembly for the Yvelines department.

On 3 September 2012, he unexpectedly announced his intention to run for the presidency of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Guaino stated that his aim was to represent the Gaullist component of the UMP's heritage in this internal election, Gaullism, a way forward for France, a movement within the party he co-founded. However, he failed to receive enough endorsements and subsequently announced his endorsement of Jean-François Copé.

In 2017, he announced that he would run for reelection to the National Assembly, but in the 2nd constituency of Paris. His party, The Republicans (formerly the UMP), however nominated former Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet to that seat. He ran under the miscellaneous right banner and lost in the first round with just 4.5% of the vote, finishing seventh. Gilles Le Gendre defeated Kosciusko-Morizet in the second round.

In popular culture

In the movie La Conquête (The Conquest), staging Nicolas Sarkozy's life from his appointment at the Ministry of the Interior in 2002 to his election in 2007, Guaino is played by Michel Bompoil.