Gilbert Collard

In January 2022, he left the RN for Éric Zemmour's Reconquête.

Gilbert Collard studied at Panthéon-Assas University Paris and Aix-Marseille University. The recorded working language is French. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris. Positions recorded include member of the French National Assembly and council member. Distinctions recorded are Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

• Name — Gilbert Collard • Honorific Suffix — MEP • Office — Member of the European Parliament • Term Start — 2 July 2019 • Constituency — France • Office1 — Secretary-General of the Rassemblement bleu Marine • Term Start1 — 22 September 2012 • Term End1 — 2017 • Predecessor1 — Position established • Successor1 — Position abolished • Office2 — Member of the National Assembly for Gard's 2nd constituency • Term Start2 — 19 June 2012 • Term End2 — 1 July 2019 • Predecessor2 — Étienne Mourrut • Successor2 — Nicolas Meizonnet • Born — 3 February 1948 • Birthplace — Marseille, France • Birth Name — Gilbert Georges Jean Camille René Collard • Education — Aix-Marseille University Panthéon-Assas University • Party — Reconquête (2022–2023) • Other Party — French Section of the Workers' International (1964–1969) Socialist Party (1969–1992) Independent (1992–2017) National Rally (2017–2022) • Occupation — Barrister • Website — gilbertcollard.fr

Gilbert Collard was born in Marseille and grew up in Châtel-Guyon. He studied law at Aix-Marseille University and Panthéon-Assas University. During his youth, he was a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and subsequent Socialist Party (PS) until 1992. His sister was lawyer and activist Jehanne Collard (1950–2021).

• Illustration — Gilbert Collard speaking to the press on 22 April 2012, the day of the first round of the presidential election, as a supporter of Marine Le Pen. Collard started his career as a barrister in Marseille in 1971. He quickly became a well-known lawyer at the national level, often speaking in the media about cases he defended. He most notably had Laurent Gbagbo, Charles Pasqua, Marine Le Pen, Valérie Bègue, as well as Paul Aussaresses as clients. In 2001, he was an independent candidate for Mayor of Vichy. He was elected to the city's council but declined the mandate.

Collard moved to Gallician, a town in Gard. He was elected to the National Assembly as a member of the RBM in the 2012 legislative election, at the same time as Marion Maréchal-Le Pen in Vaucluse. He succeeded Étienne Mourrut of the Union for a Popular Movement, whom he had defeated. Along with Marion Maréchal and other FN senior executives, Collard took part in the mass demonstrations against same-sex marriage organized in Paris by La Manif pour tous movement in the first half of 2013. Since the 2014 municipal election, Collard has been a councillor of Saint-Gilles, Gard. On 17 April 2017, during a Marine Le Pen rally for the 2017 French presidential election, an anti-fascist disrupter threw a Molotov cocktail towards him; he sustained minor injuries amid a quick reaction by police officers. Gilbert Collard was reelected to the National Assembly in the 2017 legislative election. He officially joined the National Rally, then called National Front, later the same year.

Collard stood as a candidate in the 2019 European Parliament election. Following his election he resigned from the National Assembly, where he was succeeded by his substitute Nicolas Meizonnet.

On 22 January 2022, Collard along with Jérôme Rivière left the RN for Reconquête, the party of the far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour.