It's official: this Thursday, October 31, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon announced the appointment of Hubert Bonneau as head of the National Gendarmerie following a decision by the Council of Ministers. Aged 58, the army general succeeds his counterpart Christian Rodriguez, who left office at the end of September after the security success of the Paris Olympic Games.
Born in Brest, Hubert Bonneau studied at the city's naval high school then, after two years at the National Military Prytanée of La Flèche (1984-1986), he entered the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan, from which he graduated. graduated in 1989. In the process, the Breton joined the National Gendarmerie Officers' School (EOGN, which became the Military Academy of the National Gendarmerie last September) in Melun.
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Many positions of responsibility
During his career, the new boss of the gendarmerie occupied “a wide variety of responsibilities, both in operational commands and in strategic management functions in the ministry or within the central administration”we can read on the website of the Ministry of the Interior. In December 1994, Hubert Bonneau was mobilized in Algiers during the hostage-taking of flight AF 8969. Four years later, he was responsible for protecting half of the teams involved in the 1998 Football World Cup in France.
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But it was above all the year 2011 which marked a turning point for Hubert Bonneau: the Brestois became second in command of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), of which he finally took charge in 2014 (until 2017) following General Thierry Orosco. On this occasion, he is particularly active in the fight against terrorism. Alongside General Denis Favier, then director general of the gendarmerie, he led the hunt for the Kouachi brothers, perpetrators of the massacre of Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, who ended up being shot dead when leaving a printing press in Dammartin-en-Goële (Seine-et-Marne).
In April 2017, Hubert Bonneau was also chosen by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs to build the diplomatic security department. Its mission: to produce a doctrine aimed at strengthening the security of the 500 French diplomatic territories, the 500 high schools and the 500 French institutes abroad, as well as the approximately 13,000 diplomatic agents active in France and the rest of the world.
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Taking office on November 4
It was at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 that the former GIGN was elevated to the rank and designation of lieutenant general. At the same time, he succeeds General François Gieré as Director of Operations and Employment (DOE). A role which leads him to direct the operations and missions of the 130,000 gendarmes and reservists in an unprecedented context of health crisis.
Since 2022, Hubert Bonneau has served in Brittany as head of the regional gendarmerie and the Western defense and security zone (which includes Normandy, Loire" rel="tag">Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val-de-Loire, i.e. some 23 000 soldiers in total). After this experience in his native lands, he will therefore take up his new position as Director General of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN) from November 4.