Robert Ménard | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ménard in 2015 | |
| Mayor ofBéziers | |
| Assumed office 4 April 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Raymond Couderc |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1953-07-06)6 July 1953 (age 72) |
| Nationality | French |
| Political party | Independent (since 1981) |
| Other political affiliations | Revolutionary Communist League (1973–1979) Socialist Party (1979–1981) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Three |
| Alma mater | University of Montpellier |
| Profession | Journalist |
Robert Ménard (French:[ʁɔbɛʁmenaʁ]; born 6 July 1953) is a French politician and former journalist who has served asMayor ofBéziers since2014.
He co-founded the Paris-based international NGOReporters Without Borders, which he led as its general-secretary from 1985 to 2008. He subsequently participated in the launch of thefar-right information websiteBoulevard Voltaire in 2012. Anindependent politician since 1981, he was elected to the mayorship of Béziers in 2014. He joined theLes Amoureux de la France alliance in 2017.
Ménard comes from a Catholic FrenchPied-Noir family which settled in Algeria in the 1850s. Around the time of theIndependence of Algeria and when he was nine years old, the family moved toBrusque,Aveyron.[1] He studied religion, and planned on becoming a priest.
Ménard's wife,Emmanuelle Ménard (née Duverger), was elected to theNational Assembly in the2017 legislative election as the member forHérault's 6th constituency. He has one daughter with her and two children from previous relationships. In 2008, he created, with her, the publishing house Mordicus and released a book of interviews betweenDieudonné and Bruno Gaccio under the titleCan we say everything?, echoing the book byRaoul Vaneigem,Nothing is sacred, everything can be said, criticizing theGayssot Law, defending the freedom of expression ofHolocaust deniers, prefaced by Robert Ménard himself ; interviews ofAlain Soral in theMedias magazine and of Dieudonné again onSud Radio, in 2012.
In 1975, Ménard created thepirate radio station Radio Pomarède and became president of theAssociation pour la libération des ondes (Association for the liberation of the airwaves). He consequently became the target of many lawsuits, in one of which,François Mitterrand, laterPresident of the French Republic gave a character reference. He later created the free magazineLe Petit biterrois but had to close it down due to a lack of advertisers. In 1985 he co-foundedReporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières).[1]
ARue89 post claims Ménard became the focus of significant controversy after an interview withFrance Culture in which in response to a question about the case of the kidnapped journalistDaniel Pearl he made a statement which some have interpreted as saying that the use oftorture could be justified in some circumstances.[2] On 24 March 2008 Ménard and two other members of Reporters Without Borders were arrested for attempting to disrupt the lighting of theOlympic Flame prior to the2008 Summer Olympic Games. The disruption was aimed at protesting thecrackdown onTibetancivil rights activities by theGovernment of the People's Republic of China.[3]
Ménard resigned from his role as secretary-general of RWB in September 2008[4] and became director-general of theDoha Center for Media Freedom inQatar which opened in October 2008.[5][6] Ménard resigned as director-general in June 2009, complaining of obstruction by officials of the Government of Qatar of the Center's work (notably its criticism of Qatar's restrictive media policies, along with the Center's efforts to bring several persecuted journalists to Qatar for temporary refuge), despite earlier assurances that it would be allowed to operate freely.[7]
On 1 October 2012, he founded, along withDominique Jamet, the conservative news websiteBoulevard Voltaire.
While in college in the 1970s, he became aligned withTrotskyist elements and theRevolutionary Communist League; he later joined theSocialist Party for two years before leaving it in 1981. He would remain an independent thereafter, and would later shift to the politicalright and/orfar-right.
In 2013, he announced he would be a candidate for the position of Mayor of Béziers in the2014 municipal elections. He launched his campaign with the support of thesovereigntist right-wing partyDebout la République. Ménard subsequently welcomed the support of theNational Front, which endorsed him as its candidate although he was not a member.[1] His move to the far-right attracted media attention. He described himself publicly as a "reactionary", supporting the reintroduction of thedeath penalty and objecting to thelegalisation of gay marriage in May 2013.[1] He was elected Mayor of Béziers on 30 March in the second round with 47% of the vote.[8]
In April 2014, he imposed a curfew on unaccompanied minors under the age of 13 from 23h to 6h in several districts of the city.[9]
In May 2015, Ménard violated French law by attempting to record the religion of schoolchildren in his city, claiming that 64.9% were Muslim, based on their first names. In September, he visited a refugee complex to tell them that they were not welcome in France, and two months later he declared that no morekebab restaurants would open in Béziers.[10] He promoted the concept of the "Great replacement" conspiracy theory,[11] created byRenaud Camus and inspired by the ideology ofJean Raspail, which was also used during the 2017Unite the Right rally inCharlottesville, Virginia in the United States.
In October 2016, he launched a poster campaign claiming that "The state is imposing them on us: That’s it, they are coming" in response to an announcement that the French government would be relocating 40 asylum seekers fromCalais Jungle to Béziers.[12]
In March 2018, he announced he would seek a second term in the2020 municipal elections, running once again as an Independent because of disagreements he has with certain policies promoted by the National Front.[13] In May 2018, Ménard was physically attacked and pushed to the ground while visitingSaint-André-de-Cubzac,Gironde to attend a conference, by what he himself called "left-wing fascists". The attacker was later convicted to a suspended prison sentence of four months.[14]
He was reelected as Mayor of Béziers on 2020 with 65% of the vote.[15]
In July 2025, Robert Ménard expressed his shock at the drug trafficking in Bézier, following a night of violence related to drug trafficking, which injured a police officer and caused an apartment fire after being hit by a fireworks mortar.[16]
Ménard supportedMarine Le Pen in the2022 French presidential election.[17] In a 2022 interview withDer Spiegel, he self-described as "an authoritarian mayor" and stated that Le Pen "says things that others don’t dare say because they have a bad conscience."[18] In a 2020 interview withCNews, he stated that France needed "a more authoritarian government that knows how to put its foot down."[19]
In 2010, he publicly voiced support for the death penalty stating in an interview onFrance Inter that he supported capital punishments "in certain cases" and that "supporting the death penalty doesn't make you a monster."[20]
Ménard has supportedthe Great Replacement conspiracy theory. Speaking of the demographics of school children in France,La Croix covered his statement that in one classroom at a school near his home 91% of pupils were "Muslim children", claiming that "obviously it is a problem".[21] Ménard declared that it was "proof of the Great Replacement in progress" in France. He was convicted of "incitement to hatred and discrimination" and ordered to pay €2,000.[22]
