French billionaire Olivier Dassault, 69, a conservative congressman and owner of the newspaper Le Figaro, died in a helicopter crash Sunday. (Photo credit: Internet)
Olivier Dassault, the billionaire owner of France’s largest right-wing media outlet Le Figaro and a conservative member of parliament, died on Sunday (7) at the age of 69 in a helicopter crash. President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his condolences for the death of Dassault, one of France’s most important defense industry groups, best known for the Rafale aircraft currently in service with the French military and around the world.
Tragic air crash
According to AFP, French MP for Oise Olivier Dassault died in a tragic crash on March 7 while aboard a private jet, with his fellow pilot in tow. But because the helicopter’s takeoff, the crash site, are in the Dassault Family‘s private residence, and the identity of the victims are sensitive, so what happened? The exact process and details of the helicopter crash? The Dassault family and the prosecution and police related personnel, until early this morning (8) are not too much public announcement.
The French police said that before the incident, Olivier Dassault was on vacation at his private residence in Deauville, Normandy, and at around 6:00 p.m. on the evening of the 7th, the private helicopter that Dassault was aboard, a civilian aircraft built by the Dassault Group, “Eurocopter AS350 Squirrel I”, took off from the tarmac of his Home. The company’s private helicopter, the AS350 Squirrel I, took off from the tarmac of the family’s mansion, but soon after takeoff, the aircraft crashed and exploded for unknown reasons. In addition to the air accident investigation, the French prosecutor and police have also launched an investigation for possible “negligence causing death”.
The Dassault family
Olivier Dassault, 69, belongs to a traditional rightist-French Republican (Les Républicains, or LR) political family. He is the eldest grandson and “heir apparent” of the Dassault family, a powerful French arms family.
Olivier’s grandfather was Marcel Dassault, the founder of the Dassault Group, and his father, Serge Dassault, was the second son of the group that led the successful expedition of French warplanes to international markets. Therefore, the Dassault family’s status in France is not only extremely prominent, political and business influence is with LVMH’s Arnault family (Arnault), L’Oreal’s Bettencourt family (Bettencourt), Kering Group’s Pinault family (Pinault), Chanel Group’s Wertheimer family (Wertheimer), etc. The family is one of the top elite giants.
As the eldest son of Ségui, Olivier, like his father, was nurtured by the family from an early age and placed in the French Air Force Academy, where he became a qualified French fighter pilot. In 1986, after the death of his grandfather, Marshall, at the age of 94, his father, Serge, who had inherited the Dassault Group, recalled Olivier to join Dassault Aviation, the backbone of the group, as senior director of strategy.
During this period, Dassault Aviation, under the leadership of Ségui, not only made the Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighters the mainstay of the French Air Force, but also became a major player in the international market. It is also a key player in France’s “military procurement diplomacy”. However, Ségui’s unscrupulous efforts to expand his power, and his repeated involvement in international military procurement fraud, improper political contributions, illegal kickbacks and other judicial controversies, have made the Dassault family, which is ambitious and active in politics, the most notorious “black money family” in France.
In order to avoid criticism and lawsuits, Ségui also authorized Olivier to “enter the media industry”, and in 2004, he acquired the right-of-center media, the most influential French newspaper, Le Figaro, through a purchase.
The heir apparent
In the process of Ségui’s expansion of power, Olivier was by default the third generation “heir-to-be”, not only to learn the arms business, but also to expand the “political influence of the family legacy”, so while returning to the family business, Olivier also So while returning to the family business, Olivier followed in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps and joined the traditional right-wing French conservative party (today’s “Republican Party” after a reorganization), working for years in his “ancestral constituency” in the Oise department in northern France since the late 1980s.
In 2002, Olivier was finally elected as a deputy in the French National Assembly (lower house), and has been re-elected ever since.
The Dassault family, which owns the newspaper Le Figaro, has been influential in the conservative circles of French politics since then, and has a key position as a “kingmaker” for the French right wing and the mainstream of politics. But with the unlimited expansion of the family’s territory, the Dassault family, on the contrary, with the aging of Serge, lawsuits and increasingly low profile, especially the group’s successor arrangements, is a sensitive topic within the family.
Like Marshall before his death in 1986, the Dassault Group did not commit in advance or publicly to the succession of Serge; before his death, Serge did not officially designate Olivier as the successor. Olivier, who was scheduled by his father to take over the Dassault board in 2011, gave up his family position to his sister Marie-Hélène Habert five months after Ségui’s death, already a local councillor in Oise, under the pretext of avoiding a “conflict of interest”.
As Olivier is the most capable of the Dassault family siblings in politics and business, and the only family leader with military experience, he is still mostly seen as the “heir to the Dassault family” and is expected to leave Congress before the 2022 congressional elections and return to the family group to carry the “flag of the military family”. The family is still seen as the “heir of the Dassault family” and is expected to leave Congress before the 2022 congressional elections and return to the family group to carry the “flag of the arms family.
However, all these plans are now terminated because of the sudden plane crash. This not only makes the Dassault family’s “black Gold family” past to be talked about again, its people for the French political scene, the right-wing Republican Party’s key position, but also the French President Macron led by many political figures are the first Time to mourn and sigh.
Indelible
Macron tweeted, “Olivier Dassault loved France dearly, he was an industrial leader, a parliamentarian, a local elected official, an air force reserve officer, he never stopped serving our country and his sudden death is a great loss.”
According to French media reports, French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also met with Olivier last Friday (5) in the Oise department.
Castex praised him for his humanitarianism; for being a visionary entrepreneur, for being an artist with a strong commitment to his country, and for having the courage to do so”.
The President of the French Parliament, Richard Ferrand, expressed his condolences to Olivier Dassault and his family. Valérie Pécresse, President of the Paris Regional Assembly, tweeted: “I am shocked by this cruel news. He was actively involved in politics for many years and made an indelible contribution to local development in the Oise.”
According to the Forbes 2020 Rich List, Dassault’s wealth is ranked 361st in the world, with an estimated fortune of around €5 billion.
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