Xavier Bertrand

Xavier René Louis Bertrand (French pronunciation: ​[ɡzavje bɛʁˈtʁɑ̃]; born 21 March 1965) is a French politician. He was Minister of Health from 2005 to 2007 in Dominique de Villepin's government under President Jacques Chirac, then served as Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Solidarity from 2007 to 2009 and as Minister of Labour, Employment and Health from 2010 to 2012.[1] He played a leading role in Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007. After the 2015 regional elections, Bertrand became president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France. He was a member of Union for a Popular Movement, later The Republicans, until 11 December 2017, when he announced that was "definitively leaving" the party after Laurent Wauquiez was elected the leader of the party.[2]

Xavier Bertrand
President of the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 January 2016
Preceded by	Claude Gewerc (Picardy) Daniel Percheron (Nord-Pas-de-Calais)
Mayor of Saint-Quentin
In office 4 October 2010 – 14 January 2016
Preceded by	Pierre André
Succeeded by	Frédérique Macarez
Minister of Labour, Employment and Health
In office 14 November 2010 – 10 May 2012
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Éric Woerth (Labour, Solidarity and Civil Service) Christine Lagarde (Economy, Industry and Employment) Roselyne Bachelot (Health and Sports)
Succeeded by	Michel Sapin (Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue) Marisol Touraine (Social Affairs and Health)
Secretary-General of the Union for a Popular Movement
In office 5 December 2008 – 17 November 2010
Preceded by	Patrick Devedjian
Succeeded by	Jean-François Copé
Minister of Labour, Social Relations and Solidarity
In office 18 May 2007 – 15 January 2009
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Jean-Louis Borloo (Labour, Social Cohesion and Housing)
Succeeded by	Brice Hortefeux (Labor, Social Relations, Family, Solidarity and the City)
Minister of Health and Solidarity
In office 2 June 2005 – 26 March 2007
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Philippe Douste-Blazy (Health and Sports)
Succeeded by	Philippe Bas (Solidarity, Health and the Family) Roselyne Bachelot (Health, Solidarity, Social Security, the Elderly, Handicapped Persons and the Family)
Personal details
Born	(1965-03-21) 21 March 1965 Châlons-sur-Marne, France (now Châlons-en-Champagne)
Political party	Union for a Popular Movement (Before 2015) The Republicans (2015–17)
Spouse(s)	Emmanuelle Gontier ( m. 1998)
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne

Biography

Early life

Xavier Bertrand was born on 21 March 1965 in Châlons-sur-Marne, in the Marne département, of the Champagne-Ardenne région of France. He studied in Reims, where he obtained a master's degree in public law, then a Diplôme d'Études Supérieures Spécialisées (DESS) in local administration. He began his professional life as an insurance agent.

Political career

At the age of sixteen, he volunteered for the Rally for the Republic (RPR) and quickly went into politics.

In 1992, he led the campaign for the 'no' to the Maastricht Treaty in his department, the Aisne in the region of Picardy. He was at the time assistant to the mayor of Saint-Quentin, Aisne. He was one of the pioneers of the 'Saint-Quentin beach', an event similar to Paris-Plage. From 1997 to 2002, he was parliamentary assistant to Jacques Braconnier, Senator for the Aisne, and he was elected to the National Assembly on 16 June 2002 for the 18th legislature (2002–2007), representing the second constituency of the Aisne Department.

In 2003, Alain Juppé, President for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), made put him in charge of leading the debate and explaining the subject of pensions reform during a "Tour of France". He was chosen to defend this draft bill in the National Assembly. At the same time he was part of the 'Club de la boussole,' a group of deputies who declared their loyalty to then-President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

During this period, Xavier Bertrand received favourable attention in the right-wing political milieu. On 31 March 2004, when Raffarin appointed his third government, he was named Junior Health Minister for Health Insurance. Under his Senior Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, he led the reform on health insurance. Later on, he pronounced himself strongly in favour of a European Constitution for the referendum on 29 May 2005.

After the majority of the French electorate answered "no" to the referendum, Raffarin resigned as Prime Minister. Under the new PM, Dominique de Villepin, and with the encouragement of the former one, he became the Senior Minister for Health, when Douste-Blazy was reappointed Foreign Affairs Minister. His mandate as Health Minister was marked by the chikungunya epidemic and the law against smoking in public places, ratified in 2004.

He announced his support to UMP presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy on 29 September 2006. He was named Sarkozy's official spokesperson on 15 January 2007. He quit the government on 26 March to devote himself fully to the campaign. On 18 May 2007, he was named Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Solidarity in the new Prime Minister François Fillon's government.

On 19 June 2007 he was renamed Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Solidarity in Fillon's second government after the first one handed in its resignation the day before for rehandling after government number two Alain Juppé, Minister of Ecology and Development and the only Minister of State, resigned after having lost in the legislative race to deputy of Bordeaux. He then served as Minister of Labour, Employment and Health from 2010 to 2012.

Personal life

He was married to Emmanuelle Gontier, advisor on human resources, on 11 July 1998. They have three children, two of whom are twins. He has been a member of the Grand Orient of France since 1995.[3]

References

1. "Assemblée nationale ~ Les députés : M. Xavier Bertrand" (in French). Assemblée nationale. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
2. Loïc Le Clerc (11 December 2017). "Alors que Laurent Wauquiez est au 20h de TF1, Xavier Bertrand annonce sur France 2 qu'il quitte Les Républicains". Europe 1. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
3. (in French) « Oui je suis franc-maçon » Archived 25 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine interview by Christophe Barbier, in L'Express, 20 February 2008

Political offices
Preceded by Philippe Douste-Blazy as Minister of Health and Sports	Minister of Health and Solidarity 2005–2007	Succeeded by Roselyne Bachelot as Minister of Solidarity, Health and the Family
		Succeeded by Philippe Bas as Minister of Health, Solidarity, Social Security, the Elderly, Handicapped Persons and the Family
Preceded by Jean-Louis Borloo as Minister of Labour, Social Cohesion and Housing	Minister of Labour, Social Relations and Solidarity 2007–2009	Succeeded by Brice Hortefeux as Minister of Labor, Social Relations, Family, Solidarity and the City
Preceded by Éric Woerth as Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Civil Service	Minister of Labour, Employment and Health 2010–2012	Succeeded by Michel Sapin as Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue Marisol Touraine as Minister of Social Affairs and Health
Preceded by Christine Lagarde as Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment
Preceded by Roselyne Bachelot as Minister of Health and Sports
Preceded by Pierre André	Mayor of Saint-Quentin 2010–2016	Succeeded by Frédérique Macarez
Preceded by Claude Gewerc as President of the Regional Council of Picardy	President of the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France 2016–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Daniel Percheron as President of the Regional Council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais
Party political offices
Preceded by Patrick Devedjian	Secretary-General of the Union for a Popular Movement 2008–2010	Succeeded by Jean-François Copé