Jean-Louis Marie Borloo (; born 7 April 1951) is a French politician who served as president of the

Union of Democrats and Independents The Union of Democrats and Independents (french: Union des démocrates et indépendants, UDI) is a Centrism, centre to Centre-right politics, centre-right list of political parties in France, political party in France and former Electoral alliance ...

(UDI) from 2012 to 2014. He also was Minister of the Economy, Finance and Employment in 2007 and Minister of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea from 2007 until 2010 under President

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-Se ...

Early life

Jean-Louis Marie Borloo was born in Paris, his parents were Lucien Borloo born in Guéméné-sur-Scorff and Mauricette Acquaviva from Marseille of Corsican origin. Borloo gained 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 ...

in 1969, in the Philosophy stream. In 1972 he took a first degree in Law and Philosophy at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, in 1974 a further degree in History and Economics at Paris X Nanterre, and in 1976 an MBA at

HEC Paris HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fi ...

Political career

Of Picard origin, Borloo began his career as a lawyer in the 1980s. He became president of the Valenciennes Football Club in 1986. In 1989, he was elected mayor of

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a s ...

as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, winning over 76 per cent of the vote. In the June 1989

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

, Borloo was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

as the second candidate on Simone Veil's list. He held this seat until his election as regional councillor for the Nord-Pas-de-Calais in 1992. Borloo was elected to the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

as a

Miscellaneous Right Miscellaneous right (', ''DVD'') in France refers to right-wing candidates who are not members of any large party. This can include members of small right-wing parties, dissidents expelled from their party for running against their party's candida ...

candidate representing the

Nord's 21st constituency The 21st constituency of the Nord is a French legislative constituency in the Nord ''département''. Description Prior to 1988, the 21st constituency was the constituency of Avesnes-sur-Helpe in the southeastern part of the department. It no ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. Joining the caucus of the UDF, he was re-elected in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, two years after his re-election as Mayor of Valenciennes. He was a founding member of Ecology Generation in 1990, but he later joined the

Union for French Democracy The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to c ...

led by

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. ...

. However, in 2002 he joined the Radical Party, associated with the new

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 Social ...

. He was co-president of the Radical Party alongside

André Rossinot André Rossinot (born 22 May 1939) is a French politician. He is a medical doctor specialist in Otolaryngology. He is a member of the Radical Party. Between 1978 and 1997, he was a member of the French National Assembly. From 1993 until 1995 ...

between 2005 and 2007, when he became sole President of the party. It was on the Radical-UMP ticket that Borloo was re-elected as a deputy in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. He was Minister for the City and Urban Renewal in the

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Jean-Pierre Raffarin (; born 3 August 1948) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 May 2002 to 31 May 2005. He resigned after France's rejection of the referendum on the European Union draft constitution. Howeve ...

governments between 2002 and 2004, Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Cohesion under Raffarin between 2004 and 2005, and finally Minister for Employment, Social Cohesion and Housing in the Dominique de Villepin government between 2005 and 2007. In that role, he introduced a five-year plan of

social cohesion Group cohesiveness (also called group cohesion and social cohesion) arises when bonds link members of a social group to one another and to the group as a whole. Although cohesion is a multi-faceted process, it can be broken down into four main co ...

, which was centered around three axes: equal opportunity, housing and employment. On 21 July 2005 Borloo married news anchorwoman

Béatrice Schönberg Béatrice Schönberg (née Béatrice Szabo; 9 May 1953) is a French television journalist. She anchored the newscasts on La Cinq from 1987 to 1992 and on France 2 from 1997 to 2007. She was formerly married to the musician and composer Claude-M ...

Rueil-Malmaison Rueil-Malmaison () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2017, it had a population of 78,152. It is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Par ...

, Hauts-de-Seine. From 18 May to 19 June 2007, he was Minister of the Economy and Finance in the François Fillon cabinet. Between 19 June 2007 and November 2010, he was the French minister of State for Energy, Ecology and Sustainable Development. In this capacity, he was a major player in the 2007–2008 ''

Grenelle de l'environnement The Grenelle de l'environnement was an open multi-party debate that took place in France in the summer and fall of 2007 to define key points of public policy on environmental and sustainable development over the following five-year period. Bringin ...

''. He quit the government allegedly after being passed over for premiership in a cabinet reshuffle. In April 2011, Borloo left the UMP in protest at Sarkozy's rightward swing. He announced plans to set up a "republican, ecologist, and social alliance", with a view to becoming a candidate in the 2012 presidential election. However, he decided not to run as President of France. In September 2012, he created the

(UDI), trying to unify all the Centrist parties, while the UDI still allies with the UMP. Despite being a leader in the UDI, Borloo was not involved in the 2014 local elections, mentioning health reasons, such as frontal acute

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

and

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

. On 6 April 2014, Borloo announced in a letter to the executives of the UDI that he would resign immediately from "every political term and position" due to his health concerns. Governmental functions Minister of State, Minister for Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development: 2007–2010. Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry: May–June 2007. Minister for Employment, Social Cohesion and Housing: 2005–2007. Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Cohesion: 2004–2005.''The Europe World Year Book 2004, Volume I.'' London, UK: Europa, 2004. 1685. Minister of the City and Urban Renewal: 2002–2004. Electoral mandates ''European Parliament'' Member of

: 1989–1992. ''National Assembly of France'' President of the

Group in the National Assembly : 2012–2014. Member of the

National Assembly of France The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

for

Nord (French department) Nord (; officially french: département du Nord; pcd, départémint dech Nord; nl, Noorderdepartement, ) is a department in Hauts-de-France region, France bordering Belgium. It was created from the western halves of the historical counties of ...

(21st constituency) : 1993–2002 (Became minister in 2002) / Reelected in 2007 but he remains minister in 2007 / And 2010–2014. Elected in 1993, reelected in 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012. ''Regional Council'' Regional councillor of Nord-Pas-de-Calais : 1992–1993 (Resignation) / March–November 1998 (Resignation). ''Municipal Council'' Mayor of

: 1989–2002 (Resignation). Deputy-mayor of

: 2002–2008. Municipal councillor of

: 1989–2014. ''Agglomeration community Council'' President of the Agglomeration community of

: 2001–2008. Member of the Agglomeration community of

: 2001–2014. Political functions President of Union of Democrats and Independents : 2012–2014. President of the

Radical Party (France) The Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party (french: Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste) is a liberal and formerly social-liberal political party in France. It is also often referred to simply as the Radical Party (french: ...

: 2007–2012. Vice-president of the

: 2009–2012.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Borloo, Jean-Louis 1951 births Living people Politicians from Paris French people of Belgian descent French people of Corsican descent Ecology Generation politicians Union for French Democracy politicians Radical Party (France) politicians Union of Democrats and Independents politicians French Ministers of Finance French Ministers of the Environment Government ministers of France Deputies of the 10th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 11th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 14th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Mayors of places in Hauts-de-France People from Valenciennes Lycée Janson-de-Sailly alumni HEC Paris alumni