Élisabeth Borne (; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who has served as

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister ...

since May 2022. She is a member of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

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

's party

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

. A civil engineer, government official and manager of state enterprises in the transport and construction sectors, Borne previously served as

minister of transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

(2017–2019) and minister of ecology (2019–2020). She was then minister of labour, employment and integration in the

Castex government The Castex government (French: ''Gouvernement Castex'') was the forty-second government of the French Fifth Republic, formed on 3 July 2020 and headed by Jean Castex as Prime Minister under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. It was dissolved on 1 ...

from 2020 to 2022. On 16 May 2022, President Macron appointed her as the next prime minister after Castex's resignation, as it is the tradition following the

presidential elections in France Presidential elections in France determine who will serve as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra for the French side for the next five years. Until 2002, the elections were held every seven years. They are always held on a Sunday. Sinc ...

. Borne is the second woman to hold the position after

Édith Cresson Édith Cresson (; née Campion; born 27 January 1934) is a French politician from the Socialist Party. She served as Prime Minister of France from 1991 to 1992, the first woman to do so. She was the only woman to be prime minister until 2022, whe ...

, who served from 1991 to 1992.

Early life and education

Borne was born in Paris on 18 April 1961. Her French mother, Marguerite Lecèsne, was a pharmacist. Her father, Joseph Bornstein, son of Zelig Bornstein from

Łuków Łuków is a city in eastern Poland with 30,727 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2005). Since 1999, it has been situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, previously it had belonged to the Siedlce Voivodeship (between 1975–1998). It is the capital of Ł ...

(formerly

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

), was a stateless Jewish refugee who was born in Belgium, then fled to France at the outset of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; he was active in the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

, and was deported, but survived the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

and

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convent ...

. He was naturalised as French in 1950 and changed the family name to "Borne". Her parents ran a pharmaceutical laboratory after the war. Her father's death when she was 11 years old resulted in Borne receiving "

Ward of the Nation Ward of the Nation () is a French civil status with certain attendant rights allocated by the State to those who have a parent who was injured or killed in war, or (since the November 2015 Paris attacks) during a terrorist incident, or while c ...

" education benefits, which the state granted to minors who had a parent injured or killed during a war, a terrorist attack or while rendering certain public services. Borne attended high school at

Lycée Janson-de-Sailly Lycée Janson de Sailly is a ''lycée'' located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. The ''lycéens'' of Janson are called ''les jansoniens'' and they usually refer to their high school as Janson, or JdS. It is the biggest academic ins ...

in Paris. Later, she entered the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

(class of 1981). In 1986, she obtained her

Diplôme d'Ingénieur The Diplôme d'Ingénieur (, often abbreviated as ''Dipl. Ing.'') is a postgraduate degree in engineering ''(see Engineer's Degrees in Europe)'' usually awarded by the Grandes Écoles in engineering. It is generally obtained after five to seven ye ...

in civil engineering from the

École nationale des ponts et chaussées École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

(National School of Road and Bridge Engineering) and one year later a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

(MBA) from the

Collège des Ingénieurs Collège des Ingénieurs (also referred to as CDI) is a European educational institution and business school founded in Paris (France), Munich (Germany), and Torino (Italy). It provides Engineering graduates with learning opportunities in business ...

Career in the public sector

Borne joined the civil service as a government official at the French planning and works ministry ''(ministère de l'Equipement)'' in 1987. In the early 1990s, she was an advisor in the

ministry of education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

under

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

and Jack Lang (both members of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

). From 1993 to 1996 she worked as a technical director for the public housing company Sonacotra. In 1997,

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 not ...

Jospin appointed her as his advisor for urban planning, housing and transport. In 2002, Borne became a strategy director and member of the executive committee at the state-owned railway company

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

, before joining the public works construction company

Eiffage Eiffage S.A. is a French civil engineering construction company. it was the third largest company of its type in France, and the fifth largest in Europe. History The company was formed in 1992 through the merger of several long standing com ...

as concessions manager in 2007. She worked as director of urban planning for the City of Paris under mayor

Bertrand Delanoë Bertrand Delanoë (; born 30 May 1950) is a French retired politician who served as Mayor of Paris from 2001 to 2014. A member of the Socialist Party (PS), he previously served in the National Assembly from 1981 to 1986 and Senate from 1995 unt ...

from 2008 until 2013.Philippe Jacqué, Cédric Pietralunga and Isabelle Chaperon (March 24, 2015)
RATP : Elisabeth Borne devrait remplacer Pierre Mongin
''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', April 24, 2014. In 2013 Borne was appointed

Prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of the department

Vienne Vienne (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Viéne'') is a landlocked department in the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It takes its name from the river Vienne. It had a population of 438,435 in 2019.Poitou-Charentes Poitou-Charentes (; oc, Peitau-Charantas; Poitevin-Saintongese: ) is a former administrative region on the southwest coast of France. It is part of the new region Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprises four departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, D ...

, the first woman to occupy that position. At that time, Socialist politician

Ségolène Royal Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election. Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 2014 ...

was president of the regional council of Poitou-Charentes. When Royal became Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy in 2014, she appointed Borne as her chief of staff ''(directrice de cabinet)''. Borne subsequently was the

President and CEO Corporate titles or business titles are given to corporate officers to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used by publicly and privately held for-profit corporations, cooperatives, non-profit or ...

of RATP Group, a

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...

which operates public transport in Greater Paris, from 2015 to 2017.

Political career

For a long time Borne was close to the

(PS), but without formally joining the party. After

's victory in the

2017 French presidential election The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the Nationa ...

, she joined

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 l ...

(LREM). Borne served as minister-delegate of transport in the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

second Philippe government The second Philippe government (French: ''Gouvernement Édouard Philippe II'') was the forty-first government of the French Fifth Republic. It was the second government formed by Édouard Philippe under President Emmanuel Macron, following the 2 ...

from May 2017 to July 2019. During her time in office, she held out against weeks of strikes and demonstrations in 2017 to end a generous pension and benefits system for

railway workers.Elizabeth Pineau and Dominique Vidalon (16 May 2022)
France's Macron picks Elisabeth Borne as new prime minister

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

. After the resignation of ecology minister

François de Rugy François Henri Goullet de Rugy (; born 6 December 1973) is a French politician who served as President of the National Assembly from 2017 to 2018 and Minister of Ecological and Solidary Transition from 2018 to 2019. Since 2007, he has repres ...

in 2019, Borne was promoted to head the ministry of the ecological and inclusive transition. In that capacity, she led efforts to pass a long-term energy planning bill aimed at increasing security of supply and a clean mobility bill committing the country to reaching carbon neutrality in the transport sector by 2050. In 2019, Borne opposed France's ratification of the

European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement The European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement is a proposed free trade agreement on which the European Union and Mercosur reached agreement in principle in 2019. The planned deal was announced on 28 June at the 2019 G20 Osaka summit after t ...

. Since 2020 Borne has additionally been a member of

Territories of Progress Territories of Progress – Social Reformist Movement (french: Territoires de progrès – Mouvement social-réformiste, TDP) was a French political party of the centre to centre-left. It was founded in February 2020 by Socialist Party ministers ...

, a centre-left party allied with LREM. In September 2022, both parties merged into the

party.

Minister of Labour, 2020–2022

In July 2020, Borne was appointed minister of labour, employment and economic inclusion in the

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 is a ...

of prime minister

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 ...

, succeeding

Muriel Pénicaud Muriel Pénicaud (born 31 March 1955) is a former French business executive and politician who served as Minister of Labour in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe from 17 May 2017 to 6 July 2020. In the private sector, Pénicaud ...

. In that capacity, she oversaw negotiations with unions that resulted in a cut to unemployment benefits for some job seekers. During her time in office, France's unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 15 years and youth unemployment to its lowest level in 40 years.

Prime Minister, 2022–present

On 16 May 2022, Borne was appointed

, succeeding Castex three weeks after the re-election of Macron for a second term as

President of the French Republic The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is ...

. After

in 1991–1992, she is the second woman only to hold the position. She is also the second of Macron's prime ministers to be a member of his centrist party, after Castex. Borne was a candidate for Renaissance (formerly known as

) in the 2022 French legislative election in Calvados's 6th constituency in the

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

region in northwestern France. While remaining a candidate, under the

dual mandate A dual mandate is the practice in which elected officials serve in more than one elected or other public position simultaneously. This practice is sometimes known as double jobbing in Britain and ''cumul des mandats'' in France; not to be confused ...

(''cumuls des mandats'') law she was not allowed to take up the position after she won the election, and was be replaced by her designated alternate. She called on voters to support Macron's coalition,

Ensemble Citoyens Ensemble () is a liberal political coalition in France. Formed in November 2021 as Ensemble Citoyens, it includes Renaissance (REN), formerly known as En Marche, Democratic Movement (MoDem) Horizons, En commun, and the Progressive Federati ...

, saying it is the only group "capable of getting parliamentarymajority". After the first round, in relation to contests between left-wing and far-right candidates, she said: "Our position is no voice for the RN." At the same time, she expressed support only for left-wing candidates who in her view respect republican values. She was elected to Parliament in the second round. Borne offered her resignation as prime minister after the results of the second round, but was rejected by Macron, who instead tasked her to form a new cabinet. Following a cabinet reshuffle prompted by the 2022 legislative elections, Borne comfortably survived a

motion of no-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 ...

brought against her by MPs of the

New Ecologic and Social People's Union The New Ecological and Social People's Union (french: Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale, link=no, NUPES) is a left-wing alliance of political parties in France. Formed on May Day 2022, the alliance includes La France Insoumise (LFI ...

(NUPES), a broad alliance of left-wing opponents.

Personal life

Borne was admitted to hospital with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in March 2021 and was administered oxygen. Borne married Olivier Allix, a lecturer and also an engineer, on 30 June 1989 with whom she later had a son, Nathan. The couple has since divorced.

Honours

References

External links

Élisabeth Borne on Gouvernement.fr
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Borne, Élisabeth 1961 births Living people 21st-century French women politicians Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Corps des ponts École des Ponts ParisTech alumni École Polytechnique alumni French chief executives French Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs French politicians French women French people of Polish-Jewish descent Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite Politicians from Paris Prime Ministers of France Transport ministers of France Women government ministers of France Women prime ministers Prefects of Vienne La République En Marche! politicians Deputies of the 16th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Members of the Borne government