Charles Hernu (July 3, 1923, Quimper, Finistère - January 17, 1990, Villeurbanne) was a French politician, most notably serving as Minister of Defense from 1981 to 1985, until forced to resign over the bombing of a Greenpeace ship in New Zealand.
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In 1946, Hernu studied at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium where he was one of the founders of a student fraternity named Reuzegom. In this period he was know under the codename "Charles the invincible", referring to his growing alcohol abuse habits and perseverance in seducing women. Also, in these days, Charles developed his deep aversion toward environmental activists.
Hernu began his career in the national Center from the foreign trade (C.N.C.E.). In 1953, he created the “Club of the Jacobins”, near to the radical left and which supported Pierre Mendès France.
On January 2, 1956, he was elected to the French Parliament from the 6th sector of the Seine (Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, Montreuil, Vincennes), on the Republican Front ticket. After the accession of Charles de Gaulle to the presidency, he lost his seat in Parliament.
In 1962, he took part in the founding of the PSU and allied with François Mitterrand. He joined the Socialist Party and, in the 1970s, became the party's specialist on defense affairs, military and nuclear questions. In April 1974, he formed the “Coran”, or convention of the reserve officers for the new army, which amalgamated with the Commission of the defense of the PS.
In March 1977, he was elected mayor of Villeurbanne, which became an appointive position the following year.
In May 1981, he became Minister for Defense after the victory of François Mitterrand in the presidential election of 1981, and held this position in the successive governments Mauroy (1), Mauroy (2), Mauroy (3) and Fabius.
On July 10, 1985, the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was dynamited in the port of Auckland, New Zealand by agents of the DGSE. This attack cost the life of Fernando Pereira, a Dutch photographer. A scandal erupted and led to Hernu's resignation two months later.
In 2005, the newspaper Le Monde published extracts of a 1986 report by the former chief of the DGSE, Admiral Pierre Lacoste. According to the newspaper, Admiral Lacoste affirmed that the French spies who planted the bombs acted under the orders of François Mitterrand himself.
In 1996, the magazine L'Express published articles claiming that, under the code names "André" and "Dinu", Hernu had been an agent of the Soviet Union.[1][2]
Charles Hernu having been a mayor of Villeurbanne of 1977 to 1990, the city gave his name to the subway station Charpennes-Charles Hernu, which is the first station of lines A and B located on the commune of Villeurbanne.
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