Patrick Kanner (; born 29 April 1957) is a French politician serving as 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 g ...

and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

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 ...

since 2018. 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 ...

, he has represented the

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

since 2017. Kanner previously served as

President of the General Council In France, the President of the Departmental Council ( French: ''Président du Conseil départemental'') is the locally elected head of the departmental council, the assembly governing a department in France. The position is elected by the depar ...

from 2011 to 2014 and Minister of the City, Youth and Sports from 2014 to 2017.

Biography

Family and youth

Patrick Kanner is the son of Polish Jews who fled Nazism to France. He grew up 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 ...

and studied at

Lille 2 University of Health and Law The Lille 2 University of Health and Law (french: Université Lille 2 : Droit et Santé) was a French university for health, sports, management and law. It was located in Lille and was part of the Community of Universities and Institutions (COMUE ...

Early political career

Kanner was elected to the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

. He became Mayor

Pierre Mauroy Pierre Mauroy (; 5 July 1928 – 7 June 2013) was a French Socialist politician who was Prime Minister of France from 1981 to 1984 under President François Mitterrand. Mauroy also served as Mayor of Lille from 1973 to 2001. At the time of his de ...

's youngest ''adjoint'' the same year, a position he kept when

Martine Aubry Martine Louise Marie Aubry (; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (''Parti Socialiste'', or PS) from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the Mayor of Lille (No ...

assumed the mayorship in 2001. In 1998, he was also elected to the General Council of Nord.

Ministership under François Hollande

Elected to the presidency of the Nord General Council in 2011, Kanner became Minister of the City, Youth and Sports in the Second Valls government, succeeding

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (; ar, link=no, نجاة فالو بلقاسم; Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⴰⵜ ⴱⵍⵇⴰⵙⵎ; born 4 October 1977) is a former Moroccan- French jurist and politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who was the first Fr ...

. He remained in office in the

Cazeneuve government The Cazeneuve government ( French: ''Gouvernement Bernard Cazeneuve'') was the thirty-ninth government in the Fifth Republic of France. It was led by Bernard Cazeneuve who was appointed Prime Minister of France on 6 December 2016. It consisted ...

Senator for Nord

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, Kanner was elected to the

. Following the announced retirement of

Didier Guillaume Didier Guillaume (born 11 May 1959) is a French politician who served as Minister of Agriculture and Food in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe from 2018 to 2020. A member of the Socialist Party until 2018, he was President of the ...

, he was elected president of the

in the Senate with 47 votes, against

Laurence Rossignol Laurence Rossignol (born 22 December 1957) is a French politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who has served as a member of the French Senate from 2011 to 2014 and again since 2017, representing Oise. From 2014 to 2017, she served as Secretary of ...

with 25 votes, on 23 January 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanner, Patrick 1957 births Living people French people of Polish-Jewish descent 20th-century French Jews Politicians from Lille Socialist Party (France) politicians 21st-century French politicians Lille University of Science and Technology alumni Senators of Nord (French department) Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite