Jean-Pierre Chevènement

French Minister for Investigation and Industry with an eventful career in government service. Chevenement was a political thorn in the side of the Socialist Party for many years and he resigned his post in 1983 because he did not agree with the strict monetary policy applied by the then Prime Minister, Pierre Mauroy. Posted in the Defense Ministry, he was an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, especially during the Gulf War and resigned on 29 January 1991 because he did not agree with France's involvement in the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq. In 1993, he founded the Citizens’ Movement, which represents the French left against the Socialist Party.

On 2 September 1998 he suffered a heart attack after an allergic reaction to anesthesia for gall bladder surgery, which left him "clinically dead" in a deep coma for eight days (he suffered what was described as an extremely rare reaction to a component in the anesthesia).

Serving as France’s Minister of the Interior, he resigned on 29 August 2000 due to a disagreement with Jospin over policy towards Corsica. Chevènement is running for the presidential election of 2002.