Christian Jacob (politician)

Christian Jacob (born 4 December 1959) is a French politician of The Republicans (LR) who has been serving as the party's chairman since 2019. Over the course of his career, he held several cabinet positions, including as the Minister of French Civil Service in Jacques Chirac's second term as President of France.[1]

Christian Jacob
President of The Republicans
Assumed office
13 October 2019
Preceded byJean Leonetti
Member of the National Assembly
for Seine-et-Marne's 4th constituency
Assumed office
21 June 2007
Preceded byGhislain Bray
Leader of The Republicans in the National Assembly
In office
23 November 2010 – 6 November 2019
Preceded byJean-François Copé
Succeeded byDamien Abad
Minister of the Civil Service
In office
2005–2007
PresidentJacques Chirac
Prime MinisterDominique de Villepin
Preceded byRenaud Dutreil
Succeeded byAndré Santini
Minister of Family
In office
2002–2004
PresidentJacques Chirac
Prime MinisterJean-Pierre Raffarin
Preceded byJean-François Mattei
Succeeded byMarie-Josée Roig
Personal details
Born (1959-12-04) 4 December 1959
Rozay-en-Brie, France
NationalityFrench
Political partyThe Republicans

Early career

A farmer,[2] Jacob served in positions of responsibility in farm trade unions, local, départemental, regional then national. He was the President of the CNJA (Centre National des Jeunes Agriculteurs) from 1992 to 1994.

Political career

Member of the European Parliament, 1994–1997

Jacobe became a Member of the European Parliament in the 1994 elections. In parliament, he served on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the parliament's delegation for relations with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.[3]

Career in government, 2002–2007

Following the 2002 elections, Jacob was appointed to the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. He first served as Minister Delegate in charge of the Family from 2002 until 2004. In 2004, he became Minister Delegate in charge of SMEs, Trade, Crafts, Liberal Professions and Consumer Affairs,[4] which later became a fully-fledged ministry. In 2005, in the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, he was appointed Minister for the Civil Service.

Member of the National Assembly, 2007–present

In parliament, Jacob served on the Committee on Economic Affairs (2007-2009); the Committee on Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning (2009-2010, 2012-2017); and the Committee on Defence (2010-2012).[5]

When Jean-François Copé resigned from his position as chairman of the UMP group in the National Assembly to become the party's secretary general in late 2010, Jacob succeeded him after defeating Jean Leonetti.[6] In 2012, he was re-elected in the first round with 117 votes, ahead of Xavier Bertrand (63 votes) and Hervé Gaymard (17 votes).[7] In the UMP's 2012 leadership primaries, he endorsed Copé.[8]

Under Jacob's leadership, the UMP (and later LR) parliamentary group asked for several votes of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls in 2014,[9] 2015[10] and 2016.[11]

In the Republicans' 2016 presidential primaries, Jacob endorsed Nicolas Sarkozy as the party's candidate for the office of President of France;[12] the party's majority, however, voted for François Fillon to run in the 2017 presidential election. In March 2017, when the Fillon affair led several staff members to leave the presidential candidate's campaign team, Jacob was appointed campaign coordinator, in tandem with Bruno Retailleau.[13]

Following the legislative elections in June 2017, Jacob was re-elected chairman of the LR parliamentary group, in a vote against Damien Abad.[14] In addition, he has since been serving on the Defence Committee and the Committee on Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning again.[15]

In the Republicans' 2017 leadership election, Jacob endorsed Laurent Wauquiez.[16]

Under Jacob's leadership, the Republicans' parliamentary group asked for a vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe over the Benalla affair in 2018.[17][18]

In October 2019, after Wauquiez's resignation and in the context of a series of electoral losses, Jacob emerged as a consensus candidate for the LR leadership.[19][20] In an internal party vote, he won against Julien Aubert and Guillaume Larrivé.[21] Damien Abad succeeded him as leader of the LR parliamentary group.[22]

Political positions

Foreign policy

When President François Hollande and the French government sought to bolster the case for military action against President Bashar al-Assad's government amid the Syrian civil war in 2013, Jacob held that an intervention "could only be justified in the framework of the United Nations" and expressed concern that France was out of step with its neighbors, including Germany.[23]

In 2014, Jacob criticized the Socialist majority for backing France's recognition of the State of Palestine as a move to "add fuel to the fire in a region that doesn’t need that at all."[24]

Ahead of Hollande's 2015 visit to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Jacob called on him to push for an end to the European Union sanctions on Russia over its activities in Ukraine.[25]

In July 2019, Jacob voted against the French ratification of the European Union's Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada.[26]

Domestic policy

Amid a 2019 public debate in France about women wearing hijabs in public, Jacob demanded that clothing restrictions applied to teachers and students be extended to parents who sign up for class trips.[27] In an interview with Le Figaro newspaper, he said: "The veil should be banned on all school time. Not just on school premises".[28]

Controversy

In 2011 Jacob caused controversy when he described Dominique Strauss-Kahn as an urban intellectual – a "bobo," short for "bourgeois-bohemian" – and said that Strauss-Kahn did not represent "the image of France, the image of rural France, the image of the France of terroirs and territories". Both French and foreign media interpreted this notion of rootless cosmopolitanism, of being out of touch with the soil and the mystery of "la France profonde," as an old trope for foreign and Jewish influence. In response, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), Richard Prasquier, called Jacob's comments "a very great clumsiness".[29]

Personal life

On 15 March 2020, Jacob was tested positive for coronavirus.[30]

gollark: > Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. -Albert einsteinTwo things are infinite: the universe and fake Albert Einstein quotes; and I'm not sure about the universe. -Albert einstein
gollark: I've read about something like that being used for some sort of photosensitive 3D printing thingy?
gollark: I guess if you just want one color (UV) there are probably UV-transparent LCD panels.
gollark: I mean, you could stick UV LEDs and a diffuser thing in place of the screen, but then it can't display anything.
gollark: I don't think it would be practical to make it still phoneish.

See also
  • French government ministers

References
  1. Parussini, Gabriele (14 March 2006). "French Students Blockade Universities in Protest (Update6)". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
  2. Steven Erlanger (17 February 2011), One Prospect for President Isn’t Talking, but France Is New York Times.
  3. Christian Jacob European Parliament.
  4. Adam Jones (8 March 2005), France’s new business buzz Financial Times.
  5. Christian Jacob French National Assembly.
  6. Christian Jacob élu président du groupe UMP à l'Assemblée Libération, 23 November 2010.
  7. Christian Jacob réélu président du groupe UMP de l'Assemblée dès le premier tour Le Monde, 20 June 2012.
  8. Copé, Fillon et l'UMP : qui soutient qui ? L'Obs, 17 October 2012.
  9. Emile Picy (16 September 2014), French PM Valls sees off revolt to win confidence vote Reuters.
  10. Aurelien Breeden (19 February 2015), Government Survives Vote of Confidence in France New York Times.
  11. Brian Love (12 May 2016), French government shrugs off no-confidence vote, faces new strikes Reuters.
  12. Primaire de la droite : Christian Jacob annonce son soutien à Nicolas Sarkozy Le Monde, 22 August 2016.
  13. Fillon promeut Baroin, Jacob et Chatel dans son équipe Le Monde, 9 March 2017.
  14. Christian Jacob réélu président du groupe Les Républicains de l'Assemblée Nationale Europe 1, 21 June 2017.
  15. Christian Jacob French National Assembly.
  16. Ludovic Vigogne (11 October 2017), La liste des 136 parrains de Laurent Wauquiez L'Opinion.
  17. John Irish (24 July 2018), French opposition asks for no-confidence vote on Macron's government Reuters.
  18. Gabriela Galindo (24 July 2018), French conservatives push for no-confidence vote in Macron Politico Europe.
  19. Rym Momtaz (26 June 2019), Sarko’s back, playing it by the book Politico Europe.
  20. France's troubled conservatives elect new leader France 24, 13 October 2019.
  21. Aude Le Gentil (13 October 2019), Présidence des Républicains : le plus dur commence pour Christian Jacob, élu dès le premier tour Le Journal du Dimanche.
  22. Ludovic Vigogne (Novembre 6, 2019), Couronnement: A l’Assemblée, Damien Abad devient le nouveau patron des députés LR L'Opinion.
  23. Scott Sayare (2 September 2013), French Release Intelligence Tying Assad Government to Chemical Weapons New York Times.
  24. John Irish, Alexandria Sage and Ari Rabinovitch (2 December 2014), French parliament votes for recognition of Palestinian state Reuters.
  25. Emile Picy (24 November 2015), Main French opposition calls for end to EU embargo on Russia Reuters.
  26. Maxime Vaudano (24 July 2019), CETA : qui a voté quoi parmi les députés Le Monde.
  27. Aurelien Breeden (19 October 2019), Another Hijab Furor Hits France, Over a Mother on a School Trip New York Times.
  28. Emmanuel Galiero and Tristan Quinault-Maupoil (17 October 2019), Christian Jacob: "Nous devons parler de tous les sujets à tous les Français" Le Figaro.
  29. Steven Erlanger (17 February 2011), One Prospect for President Isn’t Talking, but France Is New York Times.
  30. Afp.com:Le président de LR Christian Jacob testé positif au coronavirus AfP: Le président de LR Christian Jacob testé positif au coronavirus, 15 March 2020
Political offices
Preceded by
Jean-Marc Ayrault		 Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly
2012–present		 Incumbent
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