Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe (born 29 March 1939 ) is a French

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

of the Democratic Movement (MoDem) who has been serving as a member of the Senate since 2001.

Early life and career

Vanlerenberghe was born in

Bully-les-Mines Bully-les-Mines () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais département in northern France. It forms part of the Lens-Liévin agglomeration community, which encompasses 36 French communes and 250,000 inhabitants. For many years it was a major coal mini ...

, Pas-de-Calais. He is an engineer by training, having studied at the

Institut Catholique d'Arts et Métiers Located in six cities in France, Institut catholique d'arts et métiers is a Graduate Engineering school created in 1898. It is one of the ''grandes écoles'' part of Toulouse Tech. Its different curricula lead to the following French & European ...

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 region, the prefecture of the N ...

and holding a degree from the Centre des Hautes Études de la Construction. He worked in Arras for the Public Works Commission, also holding jobs from 1964 to 1974 at

Rhône-Poulenc Rhône-Poulenc () was a French chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in 1928. In 1999 it merged with Hoechst AG to form Aventis. As of 2015, the pharmaceutical operations of Rhône-Poulenc are part of Sanofi and the chemicals divisions a ...

and the Centre d'Études Supérieurs Industrielles. From 1981 to 1986, Vanlerenberghe led the Fédération Nationale du Crédit Mutuel Agricole et Rural in Paris; from 1990 to 1993, he directed the Conseil en Développement d'Entreprises et Ressources Humaines.

Political career

Member of the European Parliament

Vanlerenberghe was 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 1986 to 1989 and again from 1993 to 1994. In parliament, he served on the Committee on Youth, Culture, Education, Information and Sport (1986–1987), the Committee on Budgets (1987–1989) and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (1993–1994).

Mayor of Arras

Vanlerenberghe served as

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 Arras from June 1995 to February 2011. Having won reelection as mayor in the 2008 elections with broad cross-party support, he left his post in February 2011 in favor of his successor, fellow MoDem politician Frédéric Leturque.

Member of the Senate

Vanlerenberghe was elected UDF senator from the Pas-de-Calais at in the

2001 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2001. Africa * 2001 Beninese presidential election * 2001 Cape Verdean parliamentary election * 2001 Cape Verdean presidential election * 2001 Chadian presidential election * 2001 Gabonese legislative ...

. A centrist, Vanlerenberghe joined the

MoDem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

of François Bayrou after the 2007 elections and has since been part of the

Centrist Union group The Centrist Union group (french: groupe Union centriste, abbreviated UC) is a centrist parliamentary group in the Senate uniting members of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) and Democratic Movement (MoDem), as well as the Centrist Al ...

at the

Palais du Luxembourg The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...

. In the Senate, he is a member of the Committee on Social Affairs. Since 2014, he has been serving as the Senate’s lead rapporteur on the social security in France.

Current mandates

* Vice-President of Mouvement démocrate * Senator for Pas-de-Calais * Member of the Municipal Council of Arras * Member of the Urban Community of Arras

Former mandates

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 Arras * President of the Urban Community of Arras * Member of the French Parliamentary Delegation for the European Union * Member of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Health Policy * Regional counsellor for Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Political positions

In 2016, Vanlerenberghe publicly endorsed

Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...

in the Republicans’ primaries for the 2017 presidential elections.Ludovic Vigogne (20 April 2016)
« Primaire à droite: la liste des premiers soutiens parlementaires »
''

L'Opinion ''L'Opinion'' is a daily francophone Moroccan newspaper. History and profile ''L'Opinion'' was established in 1965. The daily is the organ of the Istiqlal Party. It is the sister publication of the Arabic-language newspaper ''Al-Alam'' and i ...

''.

References

External links

Information on the website of the French Senate
1939 births Living people People from Bully-les-Mines Centre of Social Democrats politicians Union for French Democracy politicians Democratic Movement (France) politicians French Senators of the Fifth Republic Mayors of places in Hauts-de-France Union of Democrats and Independents politicians Senators of Pas-de-Calais French people of Belgian descent {{France-politician-UDI-stub