Charles Hernu

Eugène Charles Hernu (3 July 1923 – 17 January 1990) was a French socialist politician. He served as Minister of Defence from 1981 to 1985, until forced to resign over the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.

Hernu was born in Quimper, Finistère, but received part of his higher education in Belgium. In 1946 he was a student at the Catholic University of Leuven in that country. There, he was one of the founders of a fraternity named Reuzegom. During this period he was known by the codename "Charles the invincible", which referred to his growing alcohol abuse habits and perseverance in seducing women. Also, in these days, Hernu developed his deep aversion toward environmental activists.

Hernu began his career working in the National Center of Foreign Trade (C.N.C.E.). In 1953, he created the "Club of the Jacobins", which ideologically was near to the radical (though non-communist) left, and which supported future Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France.

On 2 January 1956 (after Mendès France had lost the Prime Ministry but was still a powerful cabinet figure), Hernu was elected to the French legislature from the 6th sector of the Seine (Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, Montreuil, Vincennes), on the Republican Front ticket. After the accession of Charles de Gaulle to the presidency, he lost his seat in Parliament.

In 1962, Hernu allied himself with the increasingly prominent Socialist Party figure François Mitterrand. During the 1970s, he became the Socialist Party's specialist on defence affairs, military and nuclear questions. In April 1974, he formed the "Coran", or convention of the reserve officers for the new army, which amalgamated with the Commission of the Defence of the PS. Three years later, he was elected mayor of Villeurbanne, which became an appointive position the following year (but which he continued to hold till his death).