Philippe Marie Jean Joseph Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon (born 25 March 1949), known as Philippe de Villiers (), is a French entrepreneur, politician and novelist. He is the founder of the Puy du Fou theme park in Vendée, which is centred around the history of France. Appointed Secretary of State for Culture in 1986 by President François Mitterrand, de Villiers entered the National Assembly the following year and the European Parliament in 1994.
After leaving the Republican Party (PR) to found the Movement for France (MPF), he was its nominee in the 1995 and 2007 presidential elections. He received 4.74% of the vote the first time, placing seventh; he won 2.23% of the vote twelve years later, putting him in sixth place. De Villiers has been internationally notable for his criticism of mass immigration and Islam in France, as well as his ardent support of the French way of life.
His brother, General Pierre de Villiers, served as Chief of the Defence Staff from 2014 to 2017.
Personal life
thumb|left|150px|Le Jolis De Villiers family coat of arms
De Villiers was born in Boulogne in the department of Vendée, Western France,
He is a French aristocrat and a descendant of diplomat and historian Louis Philippe, comte de Ségur and Minister and Regent Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. As of 2007 he is a Member of the European Parliament (Independence/Democracy Group). He is 1.85 meters tall.
He is married to Dominique du Buor de Villeneuve, born in Valenciennes on 4 October 1950 and has seven children.
Career
1995 presidential bid
From 1976 to 1978, De Villiers served as a senior civil servant in the Chirac administration. In 1986 and 1987, he briefly served as Secretary of State for Culture () in the second government of Jacques Chirac, under Minister François Léotard. His appointment was initially viewed badly by Libération and several other press agencies, which referred to his "ambiguous personality". However, Villiers supported Leotard's mixed, non-ideological policy towards French culture.
In 1987, he was elected into local office as a member in Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's Republican Party. During the public debate over the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union, in 1992, he achieved lasting prominence in the media as an anti-Treaty activist.
De Villiers led an anti-European integration list in 1994 receiving about 12 percent of the votes, placing it in third place behind the Gaullists and the Socialists. In August 2014 Villiers travelled to Crimea to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin; while there, he defended the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea by saying the Crimean park will "promote the history of Crimea as part of the long history of Russia". He also joined his political party Reconquête.
Political positions
Criticism of Islam
De Villiers is known for his criticism of Islam in France. He has stated, "I am the only politician who tells the French the truth about the Islamisation of France" and, "I do not think Islam is compatible with the French Republic". He advocates ending all construction of mosques, banning all Islamist organisations suspected of links to terrorism, and expelling extremist individuals from France.
De Villiers published Les mosquées de Roissy: nouvelles révélations sur l'islamisation en France (The Mosques of Roissy: New Revelations about Islamization in France) in 2006. In it he alleged, using internal documents from whistleblowers, that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated security personnel at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris. The book led to revocation of seventy-two employees' security clearances and closure of six makeshift Muslim prayer rooms.
Der Spiegel, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and The San Francisco Chronicle have labelled De Villiers as "far right" because of his views of Islam and of Muslim immigrants. He has self-described as a "rooted conservative". During his tenure under François Léotard, he said that he shared Léotard's American-based "libertarian liberalism".
He advocates cutting taxes, expelling all illegal immigrants, and preventing Turkey from joining the EU. He was a leader of the side advocating a 'No' vote in the 2005 French referendum of the European Constitution. The mythical figure became a central point of debate in France, and it later prompted an international controversy.
Support base
De Villiers gathers his support from practising Roman Catholics, artisans, retired people, farmers and small business owners.