Aurélie Filippetti ( ; born 17 June 1973) is a French politician and novelist. She served as French Minister of Culture and Communications from 2012 until 2014, first in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault and then in the government of

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (born 13August 1962) is a French–Spanish politician who serves as Minister of the Overseas in the Bayrou government since 2024. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president Françoi ...

Early life and career

Filippetti is of Italian descent and her family originates from Gualdo Tadino,

Umbria Umbria ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region of central Italy. It includes Lake Trasimeno and Cascata delle Marmore, Marmore Falls, and is crossed by the Tiber. It is the only landlocked region on the Italian Peninsula, Apennine Peninsula. The re ...

. She is an alumna of the elite École normale supérieure de Fontenay–Saint-Cloud, she received an ''

agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

'' in Classic Literature.

Career as a writer

Filippetti's first novel ''Les derniers jours de la classe Ouvrière'' (The Last Days of the Working Class), published by

Stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

in 2003, has been translated into several languages. In 2003, Filippetti wrote the script for the theatre production ''Fragments d'humanité''.

Political career

Filippetti was a delegate of the French Greens for the Paris municipality and acted as the technical adviser for the Minister of the Environment, Yves Cochet, from 2001 to 2002. From 2007 until 2012, Filippetti was a member of the

National Assembly of France The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

, representing the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

''. In parliament, she served on the Committee on Cultural Affairs (2007-2008), the Committee on Legal Affairs (2008-2010) and the Finance Committee (2010-2012). On Filippetti's initiative, the National Assembly passed a law in 2013 preventing internet booksellers from offering free delivery to customers, in an attempt to protect the country's struggling bookshops from the growing dominance of US online retailer

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. In 2014, Filippetti dismissed Anne Baldassari, the director of the Musée Picasso, after mounting criticism of her management. Following the resignation of Arnaud Montebourg in protest against Hollande's economic policies, Filippetti and Benoît Hamon also resigned on 25 August 2014. Following her resignation, Filippetti returned to parliament, where she served on the Finance Committee from 2014 until 2017. In the vote on the 2015 budget, she was one of 39 socialist deputies who abstained. She lost her parliamentary seat in the 2017 election. In the Socialist Party's

presidential primaries Each of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five territories of the United States holds either primary elections or caucuses to help nominate individual candidates for president of the United States. This process is designed t ...

, Filippetti endorsed Montebourg as the party's candidate for that year's

presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The ...

. When Hamon was chosen instead, she joined his campaign team as spokesperson. Filippetti was excluded for 18 months after supporting a dissident list, and announced January, 17th 2018 that she left 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 th ...

and joined Génération.s., the political movement of Benoît Hamon, her former colleague in the French Government. Later in 2018, Filippetti announced her intention to resign from politics. In 2016, she was appointed president of the Cinemed film festival. She resigned in 2019 and was succeeded by

Leoluca Orlando Leoluca Orlando (born 1 August 1947) is an Italian politician. He was mayor of Palermo for over twenty years and was president of the Italian Federation of American Football (FIDAF). He is best known for his strong opposition to the Sicilian Ma ...

, former mayor of

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Controversy

On 9 November 2004, Filippetti and Xavière Tibéri wrangled after a tense district council meeting. Each of them accused the other one of assault or threats. Tibéri had a head trauma, which she claimed was caused by Filippetti pushing her over; she filed a complaint. In 2008, Filippetti made headlines when she went public with allegations that former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn had sexually attacked her.

Personal life

Filippetti was in a relationship with economist

Thomas Piketty Thomas Piketty (; born 7 May 1971) is a French economist who is a professor of economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, associate chair at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and Centennial Professor of Economics ...

. In 2009, she filed a complaint of domestic violence against him; Piketty apologized for his actions and Filippetti quickly dropped the charges. In September 2014, Filippetti and Arnaud Montebourg sued ''

Paris Match ''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly gossip magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. ''Paris Match'' has been considered "one of the world's best outlets for photojournalism". ...

'' for invasion of privacy for reporting they are romantically involved; the weekly's cover featured a photo of them during a trip to San Francisco. From 2014 to the beginning of 2017, Filippetti had a relationship with Montebourg, with whom she had a daughter, Jeanne, born in September 2015. Her first daughter, Clara, is from a previous relationship.

Bibliography

* ''Les Derniers Jours de la Classe ouvrière'', Stock, 2003, Réédité en Livre de Poche () * ''Un homme dans la poche'', Stock, 2006

References

External links

Blog of Aurélie Filippetti
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Filippetti, Aurelie 1973 births Living people People from Meurthe-et-Moselle French people of Italian descent People of Umbrian descent Socialist Party (France) politicians Ministers of culture of France ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni 21st-century French women politicians 21st-century French novelists 21st-century French women writers French women novelists Women government ministers of France Women members of the National Assembly (France) Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Politicians from Grand Est