Franck Riester (born 3 January 1974) is a French politician who has been serving as Minister Delegate for Parliamentary Relations in the Government of Prime Minister

Élisabeth Borne Élisabeth Borne (; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since May 2022. She is a member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance. A civil engineer, government official and manager of sta ...

since July 2022. He previously served as Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness in the governments 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 ...

and

between 2020 and 2022. A former member of The Republicans, he founded and currently leads the centre-right Agir party. Riester was a member of 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 ...

for the fifth constituency of

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

from 2007 to 2018 and

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizatio ...

in the

Second Philippe government The second Philippe government (French: ''Gouvernement Édouard Philippe II'') was the forty-first government of the French Fifth Republic. It was the second government formed by Édouard Philippe under President Emmanuel Macron, following the 2 ...

from 2018 until his appointment as Minister delegate attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Early career

After a stint at accounting firm

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

, Riester managed his family's

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

car dealership A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive mainte ...

Political career

Member of the National Assembly

Riester was a member of the

from 2007 until 2018. During his time in parliament, he served on the Committee on the Committee on Economic Affairs (2007-2009), the Committee on European Affairs (2009-2011) and the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education (2009-2018). In his first term from 2007 until 2012, he was the UMP parliamentary group's youngest member. He was also the parliament's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on the 2009

HADOPI law The French HADOPI law or Creation and Internet law (french: Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des droits d'auteur sur Internet, ; or, loosely in English, "Supreme Authority for the Distribution of Works and Protection o ...

. In the 2009 European elections, Riester was the national campaign manager for Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party. During Sarkozy’s unsuccessful campaign for the 2012 presidential elections, he served as the party’s head of communications, along with Geoffroy Didier, Valérie Debord, Guillaume Peltier and Salima Saa. In the Republicans’ 2016 presidential primaries, Riester endorsed

Bruno Le Maire Bruno Le Maire (; born 15 April 1969) is a French politician and former diplomat who has served as Minister of the Economy and Finance since 2017 under President Emmanuel Macron. A former member of The Republicans (LR), which he left in 2017 to ...

as the party's candidate for the office of

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...

. When the primaries' winner

François Fillon François Charles Armand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a retired French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of the Republicans (previously known as the Union ...

became embroiled in a political affair during his campaign, Riester publicly called on him to step down. From June 2017, Riester co-chaired UDI and Independents group in the National Assembly, alongside

Stéphane Demilly Stéphane Demilly (born 26 June 1963 in Albert, Somme) is a French politician of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) who served as a member of the National Assembly of France from 2002 until 2020, representing the Somme department. ...

. He was subsequently excluded from the Republicans on October 31, 2017, alongside

Gérald Darmanin Gérald Moussa Darmanin (; born 11 October 1982) is a French politician who has been serving as Minister of the Interior in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean Castex and Élisabeth Borne since 2020. A former member of The Republicans (L ...

Sébastien Lecornu Sébastien Lecornu (; born 11 June 1986) is a French politician who served as Minister of the Armed Forces in the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne since 20 May 2022. A member of La République En Marche! (LREM) since he left The ...

and Thierry Solère. In November 2017, he co-founded a new party, Agir. Riester was a candidate for mayor of Coulommiers in the 2020 French municipal elections which he won in the first round with more than 50 percent of the vote, but entrusted the role of mayor to Laurence Picard.

Minister of Culture

Riester is appointed Minister of Culture in the government of

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 ...

on 16 October 2018. During his time in office, he announced in September 2019 a

public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

reform project aimed at creating "France Médias", bringing together ''

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

'', ''

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: * France Inter — Radio France's " generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety o ...

'',

France Médias Monde France Médias Monde is a French state-owned holding company which supervises and co-ordinates the activities of the major public media organizations broadcasting or publishing internationally from France. The company's subsidiaries are the rad ...

(''

Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of France. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with ...

'' and ''

France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Mo ...

'') and the National Audiovisual Institute (INA). He also merged the Superior Council of the Audiovisual (CSA) and the Supreme Authority for the Distribution and Protection of Intellectual Property on the Internet (HADOPI). As minister he attempted to prevent the demolition of the

Saint-Joseph Chapel of Saint-Paul College in Lille The Saint-Joseph Chapel was a historic church on the grounds of Saint-Paul College in Lille, France. It was built in 1887, and was demolished in February 2021 to build a new campus. Construction The chapel was the work of architect . Demoliti ...

Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness

On July 6, 2020, after the appointment of Jean Castex as Prime Minister, Riester is appointed Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs,

Jean-Yves Le Drian Jean-Yves Le Drian (; born 30 June 1947) is a French politician who served as Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the governments of Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex (2017–2022) and as Minister of Defence under Presi ...

Political positions

In January 2013, Riester was one of the two UMP deputies, along with Benoist Apparu, to publicly declare his support and vote for a bill legalizing

same-sex marriage in France Same-sex marriage in France has been legal since 18 May 2013, making France the thirteenth country worldwide to allow same-sex couples to marry. The legislation applies to metropolitan France as well as to all French overseas departments and t ...

which had been proposed by the government of

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 ...

. When director

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański , group=lower-alpha, name=note_a ( né Liebling; 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, tw ...

won best directing for his film '' An Officer and a Spy'' at the annual

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

in 2020, his cast and production team boycotted the ceremony after Riester said the success of a director accused of sexual violence would send the wrong signal in the era of the

Me Too movement #MeToo is a social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in ...

Personal life

Riester came out as gay in 2011, the first French MP to do so. In March 2020, during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

Riester tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riester, Franck 1974 births Living people Politicians from Paris Union for a Popular Movement politicians The Republicans (France) politicians Modern and Humanist France Agir (France) politicians 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 Mayors of places in Île-de-France Gay politicians ESSEC Business School alumni ISG Business School alumni French people of German descent Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres LGBT legislators in France LGBT conservatism LGBT mayors of places in France Members of the Borne government