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Valérie Pécresse | |
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 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| President of theRegional Council of Île-de-France | |
| Assumed office 18 December 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Jean-Paul Huchon |
| Minister of the Budget | |
| In office 29 June 2011 – 10 May 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | François Fillon |
| Preceded by | François Baroin |
| Succeeded by | Jérôme Cahuzac |
| Government Spokesperson | |
| In office 29 June 2011 – 15 May 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | François Fillon |
| Preceded by | François Baroin |
| Succeeded by | Najat Vallaud-Belkacem |
| Minister of Higher Education and Research | |
| In office 18 May 2007 – 29 June 2011 | |
| Prime Minister | François Fillon |
| Preceded by | François Goulard |
| Succeeded by | Laurent Wauquiez |
| Member of theNational Assembly forYvelines's2nd constituency | |
| In office 20 June 2012 – 20 January 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Yves Vandewalle |
| Succeeded by | Pascal Thévenot |
| In office 19 June 2002 – 19 July 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Franck Borotra |
| Succeeded by | Yves Vandewalle |
| Member of theRegional Council of Île-de-France | |
| Assumed office 2 April 2004 | |
| President | Jean-Paul Huchon Herself |
| Constituency | Yvelines |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Valérie Anne Émilie Roux (1967-07-14)14 July 1967 (age 58) Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Political party | LR (2015–2019; since 2021) SL (since 2017) |
| Other political affiliations | RPR (until 2002) UMP (2002–2015) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent | Dominique Roux (father) |
| Relatives | Louis Bertagna [fr] (maternal grandfather) |
| Education | Lycée Sainte-Geneviève |
| Alma mater | HEC Paris École nationale d'administration |
Valérie Anne Émilie Pécresse (French pronunciation:[valeʁipekʁɛs]ⓘ;néeRoux[ʁu]ⓘ; 14 July 1967) is a French politician who has been thePresident of the Regional Council ofÎle-de-France since 2015. A member ofThe Republicans, she previously served asMinister of Higher Education and Research from 2007 to 2011 andMinister of the Budget andGovernment Spokeswoman from 2011 to 2012 under Prime MinisterFrançois Fillon. Pécresse represented the2nd constituency ofYvelines in theNational Assembly from 2002 to 2007 and again from 2012 until 2016.
Pécresse was voted as the Republicans' nominee for the2022 French presidential election, defeatingÉric Ciotti in theparty primary. She came fifth in the election with 4.8% of the vote, the worst result in the history of her party or itsGaullist predecessors.
Pécresse is the daughter of economistDominique Roux who taught atUniversité Paris Dauphine and later served as CEO of French conglomerateBolloré.[1] She has degrees fromHEC Paris and theÉcole nationale d'administration.[2] She speaks French, English, Russian and Japanese.[1][3] Pécresse was an auditor of theConseil d'État until 1998, when she was designated councillor to PresidentJacques Chirac.[1][3]
In2004, she took office as aregional councillor ofÎle-de-France. She was also the spokeswoman of theUnion for a Popular Movement party inYvelines. In2020, she took office as amunicipal councillor ofVélizy-Villacoublay.
In addition to her activities in regional politics, Pécresse served as a member of theNational Assembly of France from 2002 until 2007, representing theYvelinesdepartment (2nd constituency).[4] In parliament, she was a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (2002–2005) and the Committee on Cultural Affairs (2005–2007).[5] In 2004, she became the spokeswoman forNicolas Sarkozy, who was then leader of the UMP.[1] From 2007 until 2011, Pécresse served as Minister of Higher Education and Research in the cabinet of Prime MinisterFrançois Fillon. During her time in office, she launched many reforms to give universities a greater degree of autonomy over their resources and open the way for more private sector financing. The reforms caused awave of strikes.[6][7]
In 2009, theAcadémie de la Carpette anglaise, an organisation that opposes the spread of the English language in Francophone countries, gave Pécresse the Prix de la Carpette Anglaise (lit: "English Doormat Prize") for having refused to speak French at international meetings inBrussels, Belgium; Pécresse had stated that English was the easiest means of communication.[8] At the same time, Pécresse was described by theFinancial Times as one of the most successful of Sarkozy's ministers and considered as a candidate to succeedChristine Lagarde asMinister of the Economy and Finance in 2011.[9]
From 2011 until 2012, Pécresse served as the government's spokeswoman and as Minister of Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform in Fillon'sthird cabinet, succeedingFrançois Baroin.[10][11] In this capacity, she opposed increases in theEU budget for 2013.[12] In the 2011 local elections, she notably went against officialparty line, led by then UMP leaderJean-François Copé, not to direct the party's supporters how to vote; instead, she said she would rather vote for theSocialist Party (PS) in the case of a runoff against theNational Front (FN).[13]
After the defeat ofNicolas Sarkozy in the2012 French presidential election, Pécresse remained a key member of theUnion for a Popular Movement (UMP) and its successor, the Republicans (LR). She returned to the National Assembly, where she served on the Finance Committee from 2012 until 2016.[5] In September 2014, she joined Fillon,Étienne Blanc,Éric Ciotti andPierre Lellouche on an official trip toIraq.[14]
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In December 2015, Pécresse led a list of candidates of the Union of the Right, a coalition of centrist and right-wing parties, which narrowly won theÎle-de-Franceregional election, defeating the Union of the Left, a coalition of socialists and ecologists. She became the first woman to hold the office of president of the Regional Council of Île-de-France.[citation needed] In the party's2016 presidential primaries Pécresse endorsed former prime ministerAlain Juppé.[15] Amid theFillon affair, in March 2017, she joinedXavier Bertrand,Christian Estrosi and others in calling for Juppé to replaceFrançois Fillon as the party's candidate.[16][17]
In response to theBrexit vote in 2016, Pécresse helped launch an initiative of corporate leaders and politicians – includingAnne Hidalgo,Gérard Mestrallet andChristian Noyer – to attract business from London.[18][19] She has since been saying publicly that France was rolling out the "red-white-and-blue carpet" for UK bankers.[20]
Ahead of the Republicans'2017 leadership elections, Pécresse founded her own political movementLibres! in July 2017. She also publicly opposed newly elected LR chairmanLaurent Wauquiez, warning against his possible "porosity" to the far-rightNational Front's (FN) ideas.[21][22] She later announced her resignation from LR on 5 June 2019, three days after Wauquiez's resignation from the presidency of the party.[23]
In 2019, Pécresse announced plans to boost the number of people in the Paris region who cycle to work by investing 100 million euros in new cycle lanes and infrastructure and a subsidized electric bike rental scheme before 2021.[24]
In July 2021, Pécresse announced her intention to run as the Republican candidate in the 2022 presidential election.[25] In an interview withLe Figaro, she said: "I am ready to be the first woman president of the Republic."[26] At the party's congress in November 2021, she came in second afterÉric Ciotti in an internal vote; for therunoff election, she was endorsed by the other defeated candidatesMichel Barnier,Xavier Bertrand andPhilippe Juvin.[27] On 4 December 2021, she won the Republican candidacy in the final round of voting with 61 percent of ballots cast by party members, the first woman to be so nominated; Ciotti polled 39 percent.[28][29] She appointedSonia Petro, a politician from Guadeloupe as Overseas Speaker during her campaign.[30] After winning the nomination, Pécresse's polling numbers soared above those of far-right candidatesMarine Le Pen andÉric Zemmour, though trailing incumbentEmmanuel Macron in the first round. From the end of December, Pécresse and Le Pen were close together in polls for second place in the first round, to advance into the second round behind Macron.[31][32][33]
In January 2022, Pécresse said that France should metaphorically use aKärcher pressure washer against crime inbanlieues; the same argument had been used by Sarkozy in 2005. The German corporation said that it did not want to be used in political discourse.[34] In February, some of her aides includingÉric Woerth andNatacha Bouchart left her campaign and endorsed Macron.[35] At a rally in February, Pécresse said "in ten years time … will we be a sovereign nation, a U.S. satellite or a Chinese trading post? Will we be unified or divided? Nothing is written, whether it's loss of economic status, or theGreat Replacement". She was criticised for referring to the Great Replacement, and later said that her mention was not an endorsement of what she considered to be a "theory of hate".[36][37][38][39] In addition to this statement, her rally was ridiculed by members of her own party, who perceived her delivery as awkward and likened the rally to the sinking of theTitanic.[40][41][42][43]
By March 2022, Pécresse was polling in fifth place for the first round, behind Macron, Zemmour, Le Pen andJean-Luc Mélenchon.[44] She finished in fifth place with 1,679,470 votes (4.8%), the worst-ever result for the Republicans or itsGaullist predecessors.[45] She then endorsed Macron for the second round.[46] Pécresse received slightly less than the 5% threshold to be reimbursed by the state for her campaign; she said that her campaign had cost €7 million, of which €5 million was her personal responsibility. She then announced a plan tocrowdfund the paying of her debts.[47]
Opposed to theTaubira bill on same-sex marriage in France, Pécresse participated in various demonstrations opposing same-sex marriage andLGBT parenting between 2012 and 2013, notably led byLa Manif pour tous.[48] In a 2016op-ed published by Sunday newspaperLe Journal du Dimanche, Pécresse joined sixteen other high-profile women from across the political spectrum – includingÉlisabeth Guigou,Christine Lagarde, andFleur Pellerin – in making a public vow to expose "all sexist remarks, inappropriate gestures and behaviour."[49][50]
When foundingLibres! in 2017, Pécresse told Sunday newspaperLe Journal du Dimanche she would seek to position her grouping between those who had joined Macron'sgovernment – including Prime MinisterÉdouard Philippe – and those who would follow a line she called "aggressive opposition," and which has gathered around the party's right wing.[51] Also in 2020, Pécresse said she was "totally hostile" tomail-in voting to facilitate voting during the public health crisis caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic in France.[52]
In 2021, Pécresse advocated a more restrictive approach to the issue of immigration, seeing it as a "major societal challenge". In particular, she suggests the introduction of maximum annual immigration ceilings and stricter conditions for the issuance of a residence permit, such as having "sufficient resources" (the amount of which would be raised by 25%), "mastery of the French language" and "respect for secularism and the values of the Republic". Finally, she wants to exclude people who have been living in France for less than five years from social assistance.[53]
In response to theJanuary 2015 Île-de-France attacks, Pécresse said France needed its own version of thePatriot Act.[54] Following themurder of Samuel Paty in 2020, Pécresse argued for lifting restrictions onfacial recognition and using artificial intelligence to fight terrorism on public transport networks.[55]
Declaring herself in favour of economic liberalism, she said in August 2021 that she was "two-thirds Merkel, one-third Thatcher".[56] In the run-up to the 2022 presidential election, she promised to cut public spending and taxes through four major reforms: eliminating 150,000 civil service jobs, moving to retirement at age 65, reducing unemployment benefits and withdrawing the state from competitive companies in which it is a minority shareholder.[57] She also wants to end the35-hour workweek.[58] At the same time, she has attempted to present herself as anenvironmentalist.[59]
Pécresse has been married to former investment banker and current CEO ofGE Renewable Energy Jérôme Pécresse since 1994. The couple have three children.[60][61]
A speech at a February rally in front of 7,500 party supporters was widely mocked as wooden and awkward.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | President of the Regional Council ofÎle-de-France 2015–present | Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Minister of Higher Education and Research 2007–2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of the Budget 2011–2012 | Succeeded by |
FirstFillon government | ||
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SecondFillon government | ||
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