Édouard Charles Philippe (; born 28 November 1970) is a French politician serving as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, ver ...

since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He was Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2017 to 3 July 2020 under President

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017 French presidential election, 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, M ...

. A lawyer by occupation, Philippe is a former member of the

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...

(UMP), which later became The Republicans (LR). He served as a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

from 2012 to 2017, representing the seventh constituency of

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Infér ...

. After being elected to the presidency on 7 May 2017, Macron appointed him Prime Minister of France. Philippe subsequently named his

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government ...

on 17 May. He was succeeded by

Jean Castex Jean Castex (; born 25 June 1965) is a French politician who was the country's Prime Minister from 3 July 2020 to 16 May 2022. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) until 2020, when he joined La République En Marche! (LREM). Castex served f ...

before his reelection to the mayorship in Le Havre.

Early life and education

Édouard Philippe, the son of French teachers, was born in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...

in 1970 and grew up in a left-wing household. He has one sibling, a sister. He comes from a family of

dockworkers A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the num ...

, a profession in which members of his family are still employed. He grew up in a suburban neighbourhood in Rouen. He was at first a pupil at the Michelet School in Rouen before moving to Grand-Quevilly where he attended Jean-Texier College and later attending Lycée les Bruyères in Sotteville-lès-Rouen. He obtained his

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

at the École de Gaulle-Adenauer in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, and after a year in hypokhâgne, he studied at

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

for three years and graduated in 1992, and later studied at the

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Deb ...

(ÉNA) from 1995 to 1997 (the " Marc Bloch cohort"). Philippe served as an artillery officer during his national service in 1994. He continued to serve in the operational reserve for several years afterwards. In his years at Sciences Po, he supported

Michel Rocard Michel Rocard (; 23 August 1930 – 2 July 2016) was a French politician and a member of the Socialist Party (PS). He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1991 during which he created the '' Revenu minimum d'i ...

and was influenced by him, identifying with the Rocardian and social democratic wings of the Socialist Party. His brief flirtation with the Socialists ended after Rocard was toppled from the leadership of the Socialist Party. After leaving the ÉNA in 1997, he went on to work at the

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

, specialising in public procurement law.

Political career

In 2001, Philippe joined Antoine Rufenacht as Deputy Mayor of

charged with legal affairs; Rufenacht served as mayor of

from 1995 to 2010 and campaign director for

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as ...

in the 2002 presidential election. Recognising the ideological proximity between

and Alain Juppé, Philippe supported the latter at the time of the creation of the

(UMP) in 2002, marking the end of his left-wing activism; the same year, he failed to win his constituency in the

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ...

. He served under Juppé as director general of services of the UMP until 2004, when the mayor of Bordeaux was convicted as a result of the fictitious jobs case implicating the Rally for the Republic (RPR). He then took a job in the private sector, working with the American law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, and was elected to the regional council of

Upper Normandy Upper Normandy (french: Haute-Normandie, ; nrf, Ĥâote-Normaundie) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Upper and Lower Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy. History It was created in 1956 from two de ...

the same year. In the wake of

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Sei ...

's victory in the 2007 presidential election, Philippe briefly returned to political life working for Alain Juppé, when Juppé served briefly as Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, before being appointed Director of Public Affairs at

Areva Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Ato ...

, where he worked from 2007 to 2010. He was also substitute to Jean-Yves Besselat, who served as the member of the

for Seine-Maritime's 7th constituency from 2007 to 2012. In 2008, he was elected to the general council of

in the canton of Le Havre-5, and in 2010 was elected mayor of Le Havre after the resignation of Rufenacht, his mentor, and also became President of the Agglomeration community of Le Havre the same year. After Besselat's death in 2012 following a long illness, Philippe took his seat, successfully holding it in the subsequent

. He was reelected as Mayor of Le Havre in the 2014 municipal elections in the first round, with an absolute majority of 52.04% of expressed votes. Following his resignation on 20 May 2017 as Le Havre Mayor, he retained a seat in the municipal council.

2017 presidential election

He worked for the campaign of Alain Juppé in the primary of the right and centre in 2016, serving as a spokesperson alongside Benoist Apparu. Though Philippe and Apparu, as well as Christophe Béchu, later joined the campaign of François Fillon for the 2017 presidential election after his victory in the primary, the three parliamentarians – close to Juppé – quit on 2 March 2017 after the candidate was summoned to appear before judges amidst the Fillon affair. He said he would not seek to retain his seat in the

in June to avoid breaching the law limiting the accumulation of mandates. Following the victory of

in the presidential election, there was speculation that Philippe was a potential choice for

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

, representing three essential aspects: political renewal (at the age of only 46), affiliation with the

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and m ...

, and familiarity with the political terrain.

Prime Minister

On 15 May 2017, Philippe was appointed as

after speculation he was a contender for the office alongside former Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, MoDem Leader

François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has presided over the Democratic Movement (MoDem) since he founded it in 2007. A centrist, he was a candidate in the 2002, 2007 and 2012 presidential elections. ...

and IMF Managing Director

Christine Lagarde Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (; née Lallouette, ; born 1 January 1956) is a French politician and lawyer who has been serving as President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th managing director of the ...

In the June 2017 legislative elections, Macron's party, renamed "

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a ...

", together with its ally the Democratic Movement (MoDem), secured a comfortable majority, winning 350 seats out of 577, with his party alone winning an outright majority of 308 seats. Philippe is a member of The Republicans though he campaigned for

due to the party supporting his role as Prime Minister. He formed the Second Philippe government on 21 May 2017 following a series of resignations after scandal embroiled Ministers

, Sylvie Goulard,

Marielle de Sarnez Marielle de Sarnez (; 27 March 195113 January 2021) was a French politician who served as Secretary of State for European Affairs under Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. A member of the Union for French Democracy (UDF) until 2008 when she j ...

and Richard Ferrand. This diminished Democratic Movement's representation in the government significantly. Philippe secured a

vote of confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

and was allowed to govern with a majority government on 4 July 2017. He was confirmed with a vote of 370 against 67. Following the vote, Philippe addressed the parliament, talking about plans to tackle France's debt by raising cigarette tax and cutting spending. Philippe also talked about plans to reduce corporate tax from 33.3% to 25% by 2022. Philippe announced the government's labour reform plan which will give companies more power when it comes to negotiating conditions directly with their employees. Labour reform was one of Macron's biggest election promises and has been seen as the government's biggest economic reform. On 12 July 2017, Philippe announced a new immigration plan. The plan attempts to speed up asylum claims from fourteen months to six, provide housing for 7,500 refugees by the end of 2019, improve living conditions for minors and deport economic migrants. The draft of the law will be introduced in September. On 3 July 2020, Philippe resigned as Prime Minister. He ran successfully in the 2020

mayoral election Mayoral may refer to: * Mayoral is an adjectival form of mayor * Mayoral, a Spanish Children's Fashion Company * Borja Mayoral (born 1997), Spanish footballer * César Mayoral (born 1947), Argentine diplomat * David Mayoral (born 1997), Spanish f ...

. In October 2020, Philippe was one of several current and former government officials whose home was searched by French authorities following complaints about the government's handling of the

COVID-19 pandemic in France The COVID-19 pandemic in France has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have reached France on 24 January 2020, when the first COVID-19 case in both Europe and France was identified in Bordeaux. ...

. Ahead of the 2022 presidential election, Philippe endorsed Macron for reelection.

Personal life

Philippe is married to Édith Chabre, the executive director of the School of Law at

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

. They have three children. Since the middle of the 2010s, Philippe has sported a short

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal a ...

. He is the first Prime Minister with facial hair since Henri Queuille (Prime Minister in 1951) and the first one with a full beard since Alexandre Ribot (Prime Minister last in 1917). Further, he is one of a few Prime Ministers in the last century ( Henri Queuille, Raymond Barre, Francois Fillon, Jean-Marc Ayrault) to be older than the president he served under, by an unprecedented seven years. As Prime Minister, he announced that he had

vitiligo Vitiligo is a disorder that causes the skin to lose its color. Specific causes are unknown but studies suggest a link to immune system changes. Signs and symptoms The only sign of vitiligo is the presence of pale patchy areas of depigmen ...

, a skin disease responsible for the noticeable white patch of hair on his beard.

Honours

Foreign honours

Published works

Philippe has co-authored two works of fiction: * * This political thriller recounts a presidential election mired in tricks and betrayals, culminating with the unmasking of the to-be-appointed Prime Minister's criminal history ''in extremis''. * In 2015, he prefaced ''Promenades avec Oscar Niemeyer'' by Danielle Knapp, published by Petit à Petit. *

References

External links

Biography on the National Assembly site

Biography on the site of Le Havre
, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Philippe, Edouard 1970 births Living people Lycée Janson-de-Sailly alumni Sciences Po alumni École nationale d'administration alumni Members of the Conseil d'État (France) Deputies of the 14th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Union for a Popular Movement politicians The Republicans (France) politicians Horizons politicians Mayors of places in Normandy Politicians from Rouen Prime Ministers of France French Army officers Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Honorary Officers of the Order of Australia Departmental councillors (France) Regional councillors of France People associated with Debevoise & Plimpton French political party founders People with vitiligo