Dominique de Villepin
French politician and diplomat; 95th Prime Minister of France

Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (French pronunciation: [dɔminik maʁi fʁɑ̃swa ʁəne ɡaluzo də vilpɛ̃]; born 14 November 1953) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2005 to 2007 under President Jacques Chirac.
In his career working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, De Villepin rose through the ranks of the French right as one of Chirac's protégés. He came into the international spotlight as Minister of Foreign Affairs with his opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, one year after his appointment to the office, which culminated with a speech to the United Nations. Before his tenure as prime minister, he also served as Minister of the Interior (2004–2005).
After being replaced by François Fillon as prime minister, De Villepin was indicted in connection with the Clearstream affair; he 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. De Villepin enjoyed a modest return to public favour (from the left-wing to far-left) for his public critique of President Sarkozy's style of "imperial rule".
De Villepin has written poetry, a book about poetry, and several historical and political essays, along with a study of Napoleon. He is an honorary member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
Early life and education
Villepin was born in Rabat, Morocco, and spent some time in Venezuela, where his family lived for four years. He then lived in the United States, and has said that he "grew up" there.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131660. VIAF identifies the subject as 74026065. The Library of Congress control number is nr2001027547. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 2005, 2007 and 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dominique de Villepin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.