Dominique Voynet (born 4 November 1958) is a French politician who is a member of

Europe Écologie–The Greens Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entire ...

. She is the former

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

of Montreuil and was a French

senator 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 ...

for the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'' of

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobig ...

Life

Dominique Voynet trained as a doctor, specifically as an

anesthetist Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicin ...

. During her studies in the late 1970s, she began participating in

environmental activism The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists ad ...

. She fought against the establishment of nuclear reactors in Fessenheim and

Malville Malville (; br, Kerwall) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overs ...

, and the

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

of the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a singl ...

area on behalf of the Belfort Association for the Protection of Nature. She also became a member of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

and the

French Democratic Confederation of Labour The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (french: link=no, Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) is a national trade union center, one of the five major French confederations of trade unions, led since 2012 by Laurent ...

(CFDT). In her student years, she was a broadcaster for an independent radio station, "Radio ondes rouges" (Red Radio Waves). Her pacifist and environmental efforts continued with her membership of

Front de lutte antimilitariste Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * '' The Front'', 1976 film Music *The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...

(FLAM, "Front for the Antimilitarist Struggle") and

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split wi ...

. Politics tempted her at this time, however the issues that were dear to her – social efforts, peace and

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

– were not represented in France by any party at the time. For this reason, she became one of the founding members of

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

in France. DominiqueVoynet2005

In 1989 she was elected a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

. From 1992 to 1994 she was a member of the

conseil régional A regional council (french: conseil régional) is the elected assembly of a region of France. History Regional councils were created by law on 5 July 1972. Originally they were simply consultative bodies consisting of the region's parliamentary ...

(regional council) of

Franche-Comté Franche-Comté (, ; ; Frainc-Comtou: ''Fraintche-Comtè''; frp, Franche-Comtât; also german: Freigrafschaft; es, Franco Condado; all ) is a cultural and historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, ...

. She contested the 1995 presidential election which raised her public profile across all of France. In the first round of voting, she won 3.32% of the vote. She was elected

of Montreuil sous bois in the Seine Saint Denis on the second round of Municipal elections, 16 March 2008, defeating Jean Pierre Brard longstanding communist mayor since 1984. From 1997 to 2001 she was Minister of the Environment and Regional Planning under the

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

government, she resigned on 9 July 2001 and was replaced by

Yves Cochet Yves Cochet (; born 15 February 1946) is a French politician, member of Europe Écologie–The Greens. He was minister in the government of Lionel Jospin. On 6 December 2011, he was elected member of the European Parliament (MEP). He studied M ...

. In 2004, she was elected senator for the Seine-Saint-Denis ''département''. Since the

2008 French municipal elections The French municipal elections of 2008 were held on 9 and 16 March to elect the municipal councils of France's 36,782 communes. The first task of each newly constituted municipal council was to elect a mayor. Municipal councilors, and the mayors ...

she is the elected mayor of Montreuil Dominique Voynet was designated the Green candidate for the 2007 presidential election on 19 July 2006. In the first round of the election, she garnered 576,666 votes (1.57%), failing to reach the second round. On 25 November 2013 Voynet announced she would not seek a second term as mayor of Montreuil, complaining of the "degradation of political life" in Montreuil and elsewhere. On 1 January 2020, Voynet became the Director of

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 ...

Regional Health Agency A Regional Health Agency (Agence régionale de santé) is an administrative public body of the French State responsible for implementing health policy in its region. Created on 1 April 2010, the regional health agencies are governed by Title III ...

Political positions

In a 2016

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. ...

published by Sunday newspaper ''

Le Journal du Dimanche ''Le Journal du dimanche'' (English: ''Sunday's newspaper'') is a French weekly newspaper published on Sundays in France. History and profile ''Le Journal du Dimanche'' was created by Pierre Lazareff in 1948. He was managing editor of '' Fran ...

'', Voynet joined sixteen other high-profile women from across the political spectrum – , including

Élisabeth Guigou Élisabeth Guigou (; born Élisabeth Vallier; 6 August 1946) is a French politician of the Socialist Party who served as a member of the National Assembly from 2002 until 2017, representing Seine-Saint-Denis' 9th constituency. Early life and ...

Christine Lagarde Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (; née Lallouette, ; born 1 January 1956) is a French politician and lawyer who has been serving as President of the European Central Bank since 2019. She previously served as the 11th managing director of the ...

, and Valérie Pécresse – in making a public vow to expose "all sexist remarks, inappropriate gestures and behaviour."Kim Willsher (15 May 2016
French former ministers launch attack on sexism in politics
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

''.

Political career

Governmental function Minister of Planning and Environment : 1997–2001. Electoral mandates ''European Parliament'' Member of

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

: 1989–1991 (Resignation). Elected in 1989. ''Senate of France'' Senator of

: 2004–2011. Elected in 2004. ''General Council'' General councillor of

Jura (department) Jura ( , ) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the Jura Mountains, its prefecture is Lons-le-Saunier. Its subprefectures are Dole and Saint-Claude. In 2019, Jura had a population of 259,199. ...

: 1998–2004. ''Regional Council'' Regional councillor of

: 1992–1994 (Resignation). ''Municipal Council''

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis Montreuil (), sometimes unofficially referred to as Montreuil-sous-Bois (), is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris in Seine-Saint-Denis. With a population of 109,914 as of 2018, Montreuil i ...

: 2008–2014. Municipal councillor of

Dole, Jura Dole (, sometimes pronounced ) is a commune in the Jura department, of which it is a subprefecture (''sous-préfecture''), in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, in Eastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 23,711. History Dole was ...

: 1989–2004 (Resignation). Reelected in 1995, 2001.

References

External links

Dominique Voynet's official senatorial site

Dominique Voynet's official campaign site for the 2007 presidential election
* http://dominiquevoynet.eelv.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Voynet, Dominique 1958 births Living people People from Montbéliard French anesthesiologists 20th-century French physicians 21st-century French physicians Mayors of places in Île-de-France Candidates in the 1995 French presidential election Candidates in the 2007 French presidential election Women government ministers of France Europe Ecology – The Greens politicians French Democratic Confederation of Labour members 21st-century French women politicians 20th-century French women politicians French Ministers of the Environment Senators of Seine-Saint-Denis Women opposition leaders Women members of the Senate (France)

Life

Political positions

Political career

See also

Bibliography

Works about Dominique Voynet

References

External links