Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (born 7 March 1961), sometimes referred to by his initials NDA, is a French politician serving since 2008 as president of the minor party Debout la France. He is its only member of the National Assembly, having been elected for Essonne's 8th constituency ever since 1997; he was previously mayor of Yerres from 1995 to 2017. A member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party until January 2007, he then founded the Gaullist and souverainist party Debout la France (DLF; "France Arise") in November 2008, named Debout la République until October 2014 and which is closely linked to the European political party Europeans United for Democracy. He ran for President of France in 2012, 2017, and 2022. He endorsed the runner-up Marine Le Pen in the 2017 and 2022 second round elections. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was born Nicolas Dupont on 7 March 1961, in Paris, the son of Jean-Louis Dupont, a wine maker and veteran of the Second World War who escaped a German POW camp, and Colette Aignan. During his youth, Dupont-Aignan was a member of Rally for the Republic. He campaigned for the Gaullist politician Jacques Chaban-Delmas during the 1974 presidential election. Dupont-Aignan graduated from Sciences Po in 1982 and acquired his law license in 1984. He received a postgraduate degree from Paris Dauphine University. He also attended the École nationale d'administration, between 1987 and 1989. Dupont-Aignan began his professional career in politics as a civil administrator and working in several ministerial offices, including that of the Minister of National Education and the Environment. Dupont-Aignan joined Rally for France in 1993 and then began serving in Michel Barnier's ministry of the environment in February 1995 though he refused to support either Édouard Balladur or Jacques Chirac in their presidential campaigns that year. Serving with Michel Barnier, Dupont-Aignan was friendly with multiple Europhile personalities such as Francois Bayrou. In the early 1990s, the city of Yerres was in 20 million euros in debt following the closure of a major aquatic centre that shut down a few months after its opening. In the 1995 municipal elections, Dupont-Aignan was elected with 51.8% of the vote against the then-Socialist mayor. He was also reelected in 2008 with 79.70% of the vote in the first round, giving him one of the biggest margins of victory for a mayor in France. Shortly after becoming mayor, Dupont-Aignan attempted to fix the debt issue by renegotiating the interest rate with banks, he was able to lower the debt from 45 million euros to 34 million euros. Dupont-Aignan took this further by cancelling infrastructure initiatives set by the previous mayor and developed a cheaper plan that included creating communal housing. In terms of environmental policy, Dupont-Aignan used reprocessed swimming water to clean streets and his environmental policies won awards for the city. A municipal police brigade that could patrol the forest areas was created and CCTV was upgraded. Yerres had a lower crime rate than the rest of Essonne. ... Source: Article "Nicolas Dupont-Aignan" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
