Annick Girardin (born 3 August 1964) is a French politician of the Radical Party who served as Minister of the Sea in the government of

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 i ...

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 f ...

(2020–2022),

Minister of Overseas France The Minister of the Overseas (french: Ministre des Outre-mer) is the official in charge of the Ministry of the Overseas in the Government of the French Republic, responsible for overseeing Overseas France. The office was titled Minister of ...

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 ...

Édouard Philippe Édouard Charles Philippe (; born 28 November 1970) is a French politician serving as Mayor (France), Mayor of Le Havre since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He was Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2017 to 3 July 2020 ...

(2017–2020) and Junior Minister for Development and Francophonie in the

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 ...

(2014–2018). In the National Assembly of France, she represented the islands of

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...

from 2007 to 2014.

Early life and education

A great-niece of the councilor of Saint-Pierre and senator Henri Claireaux, Girardin is the eldest of four siblings; her mother was a housewife and her father, after fishing activities, ran a family bakery business. She lived until the age of six at her grandfather's, a chief of public works. She became a mother at the age of sixteen, giving birth to a girl, future weather presenter and host of a cooking show on the local TV channel. Her companion is Jean-François Vigneau, territorial advisor of

Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...

who succeeds in 2016 to the advisory commission of local public services. Girardin holds the diploma of socio-cultural animator. In March 2016, journalists Sylvie Koffi and Shaman Dolpi devoted a 52-minute documentary film, "Annick, the pirate of hope", a co-production France Télévisions and AYA Reportage, with the participation of

TV5Monde TV5Monde (), formerly known as TV5, is a French public television network, broadcasting several channels of French-language programming. It is an approved participant member of the European Broadcasting Union. The network is available across ...

. The film, which looks back on its journey, took six months of filming, from

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

via

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Political career

Girardin is a member of the

Radical Party of the Left The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Soc ...

(PRG). She is also a member of the PRG's Executive Board since 2012. She was a member of

Territorial Council of Saint Pierre and Miquelon The Territorial Council (french: Conseil territorial) is the legislative branch of the government of the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. It was previously known as the ''General Council'' (french: Conseil général), but the nam ...

from March 2000 to April 2016. She was also a

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 counc ...

lor of Saint-Pierre from 18 March 2001 to 15 February 2002. During the French Socialist Party presidential primary of 2017, she supports

Sylvia Pinel Sylvia Pinel (born 28 September 1977) is a French politician who has been serving as a member of the National Assembly of France since 2016 to 2022, where she represented the 2nd constituency in the Tarn-et-Garonne department. Since 3 Se ...

. In the presidential election of 2017, she supported the

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 ...

candidate, Emmanuel Macron.

Member of the National Assembly

In the French legislative elections that took place on 9 June and 16 June 2002 to elect the 12th

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 ...

of the Fifth Republic, Girardin was the candidate for the

in the

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...

constituency. Obtaining 14.8% of the vote on 9 June, she was eliminated from the second round. Five years later, in the 2007 French legislative elections, Girardin obtained 31.1% in the first round, only 132 votes behind the incumbent. In the second round, one week later, she got 51.27% of the vote and was elected deputy for the Radical Party of the Left. In the

2012 French legislative election Legislative elections took place on 10 and 17 June 2012 (and on other dates for small numbers of voters outside metropolitan France) to select the members of the 14th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a little over a month after the Fr ...

s, Girardin was re-elected in the first round with 65.53%. Her substitute was Catherine Pen. In the

2017 French legislative election Legislative elections in France were held on 11 and 18 June 2017 (with different dates for voters overseas) to elect the 577 members of the 15th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. They followed the two-round presidential election won b ...

s, Girardin was re-elected with 51.87%. Her substitute was

Stéphane Claireaux Stéphane Claireaux (born 23 June 1964) is a French politician. He has been Member of Parliament for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon's 1st constituency since 2014, and served until 2022. Formerly of the Radical Movement The Radical Movement (french: ...

Member of the Government

Annick Girardin and James Michel, September 2014

Secretary of State Development and Francophonie

On 9 April 2014, Girardin was appointed Secretary of State Development and Francophonie in the Valls Cabinet. Catherine Pen, her substitute, therefore succeeded her as deputy but resigned on the same day due to health problems. A by-election was then organised and Annick Girardin was again a candidate for the

. She won on the first electoral round on 29 June 2014. She retained the position of Secretary of State and her substitute Stéphane Claireaux became the deputy on 30 July 2014. On 27 June 2014, Girardin was appointed

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

François Hollande's "personal representative" to the

Organisation internationale de la Francophonie The (OIF; sometimes shortened to the Francophonie, french: La Francophonie , but also called International Organisation of in English-language context) is an international organization representing countries and regions where French is a ...

Minister of Public Service

Girardin was appointed Minister of Public Service in the Second Valls government, replacing Marylise Lebranchu, during the reshuffle of 11 February 2016. On 9 December 2016, Émile Zuccarelli presented Girardin with the "

Laïcité (; 'secularism') is the constitutional principle of secularism in France. Article 1 of the French Constitution is commonly interpreted as discouraging religious involvement in government affairs, especially religious influence in the determin ...

and public service" report containing twenty proposals. The minister then undertook to implement six priority: mandatory training of officials to secularism, a secular referent in each administration, the creation of an Internet portal on the subject, a day of exchange on secularism and a brochure given to public officials when they take office.

Minister of Overseas Territories

On 17 May 2017, Girardin was appointed Minister of Overseas Territories in the Édouard Philippe government. Candidate in the 2017 legislative election of

, she was reelected in the second round with 51.87% of the vote. She sat for a month in the

, where she was a member of the La République en marche group. She keeps her ministry. In September 2017, Girardin managed the relief work following the destruction caused by

hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...

in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy. In March 2018, Girardin had to deal with social unrest in

Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loca ...

, the inhabitants protesting against illegal immigration and delinquency. She went to the island on 12 March. On 15 May 2018, Girardin presented her catch-up plan for

. It was broken down into six chapters (security, justice and immigration, health, social, education and training, housing, infrastructure, state institutions and services), 53 commitments and 125 actions for a total cost of 1.3 billion euros out of the national education budget. In 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 ...

primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

, Girardin endorsed

as the party's candidate in the

2017 French presidential election The 2017 French presidential election was held on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a Two-round system, runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of La République En Marche!, En Ma ...

.Pierre Breteau and Adrien Sénécat (December 13, 2016), rimaire de la gauche : qui soutient qui au PS (et autour) ?''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girardin, Annick 1964 births Living people Politicians from Saint-Malo Saint Pierre and Miquelon politicians Radical Party of the Left politicians Radical Movement politicians Women members of the National Assembly (France) Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 14th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic 21st-century French women politicians 20th-century French women politicians Women government ministers of France Members of Parliament for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon