Henri Guaino
Quick Facts
Biography
Henri Guaino (born 11 March 1957) is a French speechwriter and politician who served as the member of the National Assembly for Yvelines's 3rd constituency from 2012 to 2017. He previously was a special advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 until his defeat in 2012.
Career
Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy
Guaino was responsible for writing the Dakar address which Sarkozy delivered in 2007 and was criticised for being patronising towards the African continent.
National Assembly
During the 2012 legislative election, he was elected to the National Assembly for the department of Yvelines.
On 3 September 2012, he unexpectedly announced his intention to run for the presidency of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Guaino stated that his aim was to represent the gaullist component of UMP's heritage in this internal election. He failed to get enough endorsements and announced his endorsement of Jean-François Copé.
In 2017, he announced that he would run for reelection to the National Assembly, but in Paris's 2nd constituency. His party, The Republicans (formerly the UMP), however nominated former Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet to that seat. He ran under the miscellaneous right banner and lost in the first round with 4.51% of the vote, finishing seventh. Gilles Le Gendre defeated Kosciusko-Morizet in the second round.
Popular culture
In the movie La Conquête (The Conquest), staging Nicolas Sarkozy's life from his appointment at the Interior in 2002 to his election in 2007, Guaino is played by Michel Bompoil.