George Pau-Langevin (; born 19 October 1948 in

Pointe-à-Pitre Pointe-à-Pitre (; gcf, label=Guadeloupean Creole, Pwentapit, , or simply , ) is the second largest (most populous) city of Guadeloupe after Les Abymes. Guadeloupe is an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in the ...

, Guadeloupe) is a French lawyer and politician. A member 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 th ...

(PS). Close to

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 ...

, she was deputy for the 21st constituency of Paris from 2007 to 2012, then re-elected in the 15th constituency, which took over roughly the same territory in Paris, in 2012. She was the Minister Delegate for Educational Success in the governments of Jean-Marc Ayrault from 2012 to 2014, then was appointed Minister of Overseas Territories in 2014 in the governments of Manuel Valls. Resigning in 2016, she regained her seat as a deputy and was re-elected the following year. She left the National Assembly in November 2020, following her appointment as Deputy

Defender of Rights Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: *Defense (military) *Defense (sports) **Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The Defender'' (1994 f ...

Early life and education

Pau-Langevin was president of the Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples from 1984 to 1987. In 1989, she joined the National Agency for the Promotion and Integration of Workers from Overseas as deputy director, which she later directed from 1997 to 2001.

Political career

Career in local politics

Municipal councilor of the 20th arrondissement of Paris from 1989 to 1995, Pau-Langevin found this function during the municipal elections of 2008, elected on the list led by Frédérique Calandra. Pau-Langevin was one of the initiators of the name change of the street Richepanse (general who contributed to reestablish slavery in Guadeloupe in 1802, on the order of Bonaparte) in street Chevalier-de-Saint-George, in the

1st arrondissement of Paris The 1st arrondissement of Paris (''Ier arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le premier'' (the first). It is governed locally toge ...

(named after a Métis from

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

, swordsman, violinist, conductor and famous composer, from the second half of the 18th century). Pau-Langevin was a member of the Regional council of

Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

from 1992 to 1998.

Member of the National Assembly

Pau-Langevin was elected 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 repre ...

for Paris's 21st constituency during the

2007 French legislative election The French legislative elections took place on 10 June and 17 June 2007 to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a few weeks after the French presidential election run-off on 6 May. 7,639 candidates stood for 577 seats, inclu ...

. During her first term, she was the only black deputy from mainland France. In parliament, she served on the Committee on Legal Affairs (2007-2012).George Pau-Langevin

. As vice-president of the Socialist, Radical and Citizen Group (SRC) in the National Assembly, Pau-Langevin was in charge of immigration and co-development issues between 2007 and 2009. In this capacity, she is responsible for the opposition to the September 2007 bill relating to immigration control, integration and asylum. She fights the measure relating to DNA tests within the framework of

family reunification Family reunification is a recognized reason for immigration in many countries because of the presence of one or more family members in a certain country, therefore, enables the rest of the divided family or only specific members of the family to e ...

and seizes, with her colleagues of the socialist group, the

Constitutional Council Constitutional Council might refer to: * Constitutional Council (Chad) * Constitutional Council (France) * Constitutional Council (Ivory Coast) * Constitutional Council (Sri Lanka) * Constitutional Council (Cambodia) * Constitutional Council (Kaz ...

on the subject of ethnic statistics. During the 2012 legislative elections, Pau-Langevin was elected member of the

in the Paris's 15th constituency, which mostly covered the same area of Paris as the abolished 21st constituency after the 2010 redistricting of French legislative constituencies. Her appointment as minister leads her to leave her mandate to her substitute, Fanélie Carrey-Conte, who exercises it from 22 July 2012.

Career in government

Following

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...

's victory in the 2012 presidential election, Pau-Langevin was appointed Junior Minister for Educational Success 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 ...

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 ...

Jean-Marc Ayrault Jean-Marc Ayrault (; born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 t ...

. Pau-Langevin's tenure at the Ministry of Educational Success includes measures in favor of the School's relationship with parents, equality and against discrimination, the holding of meetings with the Minister of the city and all stakeholders of educational success, the creation of a National Observatory of educational success and the attribution of the Great National Cause 2013 to the fight against illiteracy. During the reshuffle of 2 April 2014, following the defeat of the majority in the

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

, Pau-Langevin was appointed Minister of Overseas in the

First Valls government The First Valls government was the thirty-seventh government in the Fifth Republic of France. It was led by Manuel Valls, who was appointed prime minister of France on 31 March 2014. It was composed of 15 ministers from the Socialist Party (PS) ...

in place of

Victorin Lurel Victorin Lurel ( ; born 20 August 1951 in Vieux-Habitants, Guadeloupe) is a French politician who represented the 4th district of Guadeloupe in the French National Assembly from 2002 to 2012. He also served as the President of the Regional ...

. She was reappointed to this post on 27 August 2014 in the Second Valls government, even if her departure is envisaged during the reshuffle of February 2016. In this capacity, Pau-Langevin presented several plans for the overseas territories (youth, housing, health, security) and in April 2016 managed several nights of urban violence in Mayotte. She also prepared, jointly with the Secretary of State for Real Equality

Ericka Bareigts Ericka Bareigts (; born 16 April 1967) is a French politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who served as Minister of Overseas France in the governments of successive Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Bernard Cazeneuve from 30 August 2016 to 10 May 20 ...

, a bill for real equality overseas, providing for a development plan to gradually reduce the differences in living standards and quality of life and the creation of the future Cité des Outre-mer. Pau-Langevin announced her resignation on 30 August 2016 (the same day as

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 ...

) for personal reasons ndregaining contact with the field, after having however made a press conference back to school the same morning. She was replaced by

. In the Socialist Party's 2017 presidential primaries, Pau-Langevin endorsed

Vincent Peillon Vincent Benoît Camille Peillon (; born 7 July 1960) is a French politician who served as Minister for Education in the French Government. He is a longstanding French politician and, from 2014 until 2019, served as a Member of the European Parlia ...

as her party's candidate for that year's

presidential election 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 pre ...

and worked on his campaign team.

Return to the National Assembly

Running for re-election in the 2017 legislative elections, Pau-Langevin won the second round with 60.3% of the votes cast, in a constituency where

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 ...

had not invested a candidate. In parliament, Pau-Langevin has served on the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education (2017-2019) and the Committee on Legal Affairs (since 2019). In December 2018, she was appointed

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

for the "flash mission" on the future of

France Ô France Ô () was a French free-to-air television channel featuring programming from the French overseas departments and collectivities in Metropolitan France. It was part of the France Télévisions group. Its overseas counterpart is Outre-Mer ...

, but later withdrew from the mission on 22 March 2019, believing that, despite several reminders, the work of this mission did not start. During an interview, here are these propros : "we're already running France Ô. This is something serious and that is why I will not continue this mission because I feel that it is useless". Ahead of the Socialist Party's 2018 convention in Aubervilliers, Pau-Langevin publicly endorsed Stéphane Le Foll as candidate for the party's leadership. In addition to her committee assignments, Pau-Langevin was appointed 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 fo ...

as deputy of

Ombudsman An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...

(''Défenseur des droits'')

Claire Hédon Claire Hédon (born 5 October 1962) is a French journalist, who was appointed the 2020 Defender of Rights in France. Early life Claire Hédon was born on 5 October 1962 in Paris. She is the holder of a master's degree in law from Panthéon ...

in 2020. She left the Assembly in November 2020.

Recognition

Pau-Langevin was decorated with the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

in March 2002.

References

Links

Page on the French National Assembly website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pau-Langevin, George 1948 births Black French politicians Living people Guadeloupean politicians Guadeloupean socialists People from Pointe-à-Pitre Socialist Party (France) politicians French people of Guadeloupean descent Government ministers of France Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Women government ministers of France 21st-century French women Members of Parliament for Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne University alumni Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni Knights of the Legion of Honour