Serge Dassault |
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Serge Dassault (born 4 April 1925) is a French entrepreneur and conservative politician. According to Forbes magazine, as of 2004 he was the 79th richest person in the world.
He is the son of Marcel Dassault, from whom he inherited the Dassault Group (including Dassault Aviation, a manufacturer of business and fighter jets). He studied at the École polytechnique and Supaéro.
His group owns 82% of Socpresse, which controls many important French newspapers and magazines, including Le Figaro, Valeurs Actuelles and L'Express.
He is a member of the political party the Union for a Popular Movement, as is his son Olivier, who is a deputy to the French National Assembly. He is the mayor of the city of Corbeil-Essonnes, a southern suburb of Paris.
In 2004, Serge Dassault became a senator; in this position, he has attracted some media attention and occasional mockery by coming to sessions with bodyguards, failing to adhere to Senate rules banning the use of cellular phones during sessions, and other unusual behavior for a senator (source: Le Canard Enchaîné). He is also well-known for being an outspoken advocate of conservative positions on economic and employment issues, claiming that France's taxes and workforce regulations ruin its entrepreneurs.
Dassault Aviation is an important military supplier to the French government and Socpresse a major media group, while his party controls the presidency and both houses of the French parliament. Therefore, Serge Dassault has been the object of significant controversy over the issue of freedom of expression and potential conflicts of interest. In response, he declared in an interview on the public radio station France Inter that "newspapers must promulgate healthy ideas" and that "left-wing ideas are not healthy ideas".
In 2004, Serge Dassault helped finance the 200 million euro Islamic cultural center (essentially, a mosque) in his city of Corbeil-Essonnes out of his funds, a gesture that resulted in suspicions that he is buying votes (Le Canard Enchaîné, February 2, 2005).
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