Profile:
Francois Leotard
Mr Leotard has experience of the Balkans
Francois Leotard, the European Union's resident envoy to Macedonia, served as France's defence minister during previous Balkan conflicts.
The 59-year-old politician oversaw France's involvement in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia between 1993 and 1995 before going on to lead France's centre-right Union for French Democracy - UDF.
Biography
Born 1942
Led UDF party
Former Defence and Culture posts
He pulled away from frontline politics after being placed under formal investigation in 1998 on suspicion of alleged money-laundering.
Coming from a large family, Mr Leotard was born in 1942 in the Mediterranean resort of Cannes. One of his brothers is the film actor Philippe Leotard.
After attending a seminary, he went to France's elite civil service college, the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, and in 1974 joined then-President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's political party, and went on to be twice elected its leader.
Francois Leotard was France's Defence Minister
In his home region of Var he has been a member of parliament, member of the regional council and mayor of the port of Frejus.
Mr Leotard served in two right-wing governments during the "co-habitation" period under Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, first as culture minister from 1986 to 1988 and later as defence minister.
F. Léotard, former defense minister in France in 1993, left politics at about the time Chirac was seriously getting ready to take over.
The former French minister describes in his latest novel the life of French intelligence, the state of mind of politicians -- and the assessment of humanity. Can you imagine a former FBI or CIA chief tell the public how deeply insane humanity has become, after he witnessed it from inside???
Here - the teaser - in French
he is on the TV circuits and allover the place underground and above ground zero ;-)
François Léotard
La vie mélancolique des méduses
François Léotard a quitté la vie politique. On rappelle qu'il fut ministre de la Défense en 1993 pendant la guerre en ex-Yougoslavie et représentant de l'Union Européenne de la Macédoine (2001). Il est l'auteur chez Grasset, entre autres titres, de La Couleur des femmes - et - A mon frère qui n'est pas mort (2003).
"Il y a des arbres, il y a des grilles, il y a des femmes blanches, des hommes blancs, il y a des murs, des chambres, un réfectoire, il y a du silence et des cris, il y a des nuages qui vont sur nous comme des visages, il y a des jours et des nuits, il y a ma chambre, il y a mon ventre et mon sexe, il y a ma faim et mon sommeil. Rien de tout cela n'est à moi.
Plutôt moins de bruit ici qu'ailleurs. Seulement le blanc des murs. Seulement la compagnie des miens : les morts. Ils bougent encore lentement. Regard noisette et faux de moi dans la glace. Je suis oblique à moi?même ici. Seulement mes yeux de cerf, le matin, à la toilette. Un cerf chassé.
Et tué si je sors. Il n'y a que trois lettres à "ici". Je prononce le mot sans cesse. Et enfin il n'a plus de sens. ICI... ICI… ICI… Un cri d'oiseau. Ici : la porte fermée tous les soirs. Et le soir lui-même, fermé comme un temple.
Ici est un mot égyptien ou chinois qui veut dire le désert. Ou bien la foule. Ou bien : rien. Rien du tout."
http://www.grasset.fr/chapitres/ch_leotard4.htm
hard core realist turned lyricist ;-)
to each one his way of keeping sane....
