David Belliard (born 29 May 1978) is a French politician. From 2014 to 2020, he was the leader of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

faction at the Council of Paris. He ran for

mayor of Paris The Mayor of Paris (french: Maire de Paris) is the chief executive of Paris, the capital and largest city in France. The officeholder is responsible for the administration and management of the city, submits proposals and recommendations to the C ...

in the 2020 municipal election as the

Ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

candidate. As of July 2020, he serves as a member of the executive team to the Mayor of Paris,

Anne Hidalgo Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu (, ; born 1959) is a Spanish-French politician who has served as Mayor of Paris since 2014, the first woman to hold the office. She is a member of the Socialist Party. Hidalgo served as First Deputy Mayor of Paris ...

, in charge of the transformation of public spaces, as well as transportation, mobility, rules and regulations on city streets, and the management of roads.

Early life

Belliard was born on 29 May 1978 in La Teste-de-Buch and was raised in

Augicourt Augicourt () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. See also *Communes of the Haute-Saône department The following is a list of the 539 communes in the French department of ...

, near

Vesoul Vesoul () is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté located in eastern France. It is the most populated municipality of the department with inhabitants in 2014. The same year, the Communauté d'agglo ...

, in rural France, in a working-class family. His father was a bricklayer and his mother a cleaning woman. To this day, Belliard refers to himself as a "son of proletarians". He wrote a book about his mother, her illness, and his devastation after she died in 2020. After studying in Nancy, he attended

EdHEC EDHEC Business School (french: Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales du Nord) is a French grandes écoles business school with campus locations in: Lille, France; Nice, France; Paris, France; London, UK; and Singapore. EDHEC offers its flagship M ...

, a business School in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

, borrowing money and working to finance his studies. After a first experience as a consultant, which he describes as "inconclusive", he moved to Paris in 2000 to work as a journalist for ''

Alternatives économiques ''Alternatives économiques'' (; ) is a French magazine specializing in economic issues. The magazine was established in 1980 by Denis Clerc. It is published on a monthly basis. The headquarters is in Paris. During the period 2013-2014 the magazi ...

'', a post he has continued part-time since being elected to the City Council during the 2014 municipal election.

Activism

David Belliard, who is openly gay, became Deputy Chief Executive of

Sidaction Sidaction is a major French public event that started in 1994 in France for raising awareness and collecting charitable funds for AIDS. It donates important sums to various AIDS charities, HIV/AIDS research, institutions specializing in medical ca ...

in 2008.

Politics

David Belliard joined the

in 2002 and has been an active member since. He played a role in the 2009 campaign for the European Parliament and in the transformation of the "Greens" to " Europe Ecology-The Greens". He was elected to the Council of Paris as a Councillor for the 11th arrondissement of Paris in the 2014 election. He has served as a metropolitan advisor for the Metropole du Grand Paris since its creation in December 2015. In March 2019, Belliard put forward his candidacy for mayor as the Green Party candidate in the 2020 municipal elections. He won the nomination on 1 June 2019 with 49.61% of the party vote, placing ahead of the other candidate, Julien Bayou. On 11 February 2020, Belliard said that while he condemned violence against individuals and property, it was important to understand the root causes behind the invasion of BlackRock's headquarters by ecological activists in Paris. After the first round of the Paris municipal election, Belliard and Europe Ecology-The Greens negotiated a common political program and hybrid electoral list with Paris En Commun, resulting in an alliance for the second round of the election. At the city level, this coalition won the election with 48.70% of all votes. As of 3 July 2020, Belliard serves as a member of the executive team to the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, responsible for the transformation of public spaces, as well as transportation, mobility, rules and regulations on city streets, and the management of roads.

Books

* ''Nous ne sommes pas coupables d’être malades'', avec Alix Béranger, éditions Petits matins, 2010 * ''Notre santé est-elle à vendre ?'', éditions Textuel, 2012 *''Paris, rêve de gosse'', 2020 *''Et soudain tout s’éteint'', Stock

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belliard, David 1978 births Living people Councillors of Paris French political candidates Europe Ecology – The Greens politicians French male journalists French gay politicians Gay journalists French LGBT journalists French gay writers 21st-century French LGBT people People from Gironde