Matthias Fekl (; born 4 October 1977) is a French politician who served as

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

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 ...

Bernard Cazeneuve Bernard Guy Georges Cazeneuve (; born 2 June 1963) is a French politician and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of France from 6 December 2016 to 15 May 2017. A member of the Socialist Party, he represented Manche’s 5th constituency in the ...

in 2017. 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 t ...

, he was elected to 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 rep ...

in the second constituency of

Lot-et-Garonne Lot-et-Garonne (, oc, Òlt e Garona) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the rivers Lot and Garonne, it had a population of 331,271 in 2019.2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, retaining his seat until 2014, when he became Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Tourism and French citizens abroad. In 2017, he briefly returned to Parliament for the remainder of his term.

Early life and education

Fekl was born on 4 October 1977 in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, West Germany. His father is a German university professor and his mother is a French teacher. He grew up in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

before moving to Paris, where he graduated from the

Lycée Henri-IV The Lycée Henri-IV is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges (''lycées'') in France. The school educates more than ...

. He later studied at various universities (

Sciences Po , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public university, Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , a ...

École normale supérieure de Lyon The École normale supérieure de Lyon (also known as ENS de Lyon, ENSL or Normale Sup' Lyon) is a French grande école located in the city of Lyon. It is one of the four prestigious écoles normales supérieures in France. The school is ...

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Deb ...

Political career

Early political career

From 2010 to 2011, Fekl served as chief of staff to

Jean-Pierre Bel Jean-Pierre Bel (born 30 December 1951) is a French retired politician who served as President of the Senate from 2011 to 2014. From the Ariège department, Bel is a member of the Socialist Party; he was elected to the Senate in September 1998 ...

, then president of the

Socialist group The Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group (french: Groupe Socialiste, SOC) is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It was known as the Socialist Group prior to August 2017. The ...

in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. When Bel became

President of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for e ...

, Fekl served as his special adviser. Fekl was elected member of the National Assembly in the 2012 legislative election. During his time in Parliament, he was a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs. In 2012, Interior Minister

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...

mandated Fekl with a report on immigration which was later submitted to Prime Minister

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 ...

Secretary of State for Foreign Trade

In 2014, Fekl was appointed to be Secretary of State for Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development under the leadership of minister successive ministers

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 Marc ...

and

, succeeding Thomas Thévenoud. During his time in office, France opened a trade office in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

in September 2015, leading the charge of European countries angling for a share of the Iranian market after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. In October 2016, Fekl launched his own political movement, the Movement for the Life of Ideas and Alternatives (Mouvement pour la vie des idées et des alternatives, Movida). He also briefly belonged to the campaign team of

Benoît Hamon Benoît Hamon (; born 26 June 1967) is a French politician known for his former role within the Socialist Party (PS) and Party of European Socialists (PES) and his political party Génération.s. Hamon joined the Socialist Party in 1988 and ...

for the 2017 presidential election.

Minister of the Interior

Fekl was appointed as

on 21 March 2017, succeeding

Bruno Le Roux Bruno Le Roux (; born 2 May 1965) was the Minister of the Interior of France from 6 December 2016 to 21 March 2017. He was a member of the National Assembly of France where he represented the Seine-Saint-Denis department and was the leader of ...

, who was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had employed his two daughters, at the age of 15, as parliamentary assistants. In response to the March 2017 social unrest in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

, Fekl and fellow cabinet member

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 ...

were dispatched to the overseas French department by Prime Minister Cazeneuve. He ran for reelection to the National Assembly in the 2017 legislative election but was defeated by Alexandre Freschi, who stood for

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 ...

(REM).

Other activities

* Terra Nova, Member of the Board of DirectorsGovernance
Terra Nova.

References

External links

Official Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fekl, Matthias 1977 births Living people ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni École nationale d'administration alumni French interior ministers Lycée Henri-IV alumni Politicians from Berlin Sciences Po alumni Socialist Party (France) politicians Deputies of the 14th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic German emigrants to France