Jean-Noël Barrot (; born 13 May 1983) is a French-Swiss politician of the
Democratic Movement Democratic Movement may refer to:
*Brazilian Democratic Movement
*Democratic Movement (France)
*Democratic Movement (Israel)
*Democratic Movement (Italy)
*Democratic Italian Movement
*Democratic Movement (San Marino)
*Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzst ...
Prime Minister
A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
s
Michel Barnier
Michel Jean Barnier (; born 9 January 1951) is a French politician who was Prime Minister of France from September to December 2024. A member of a series of Gaullist parties ( UDR, RPR, UMP, LR), Barnier has served in several French cabinet p ...
since 21 September 2024. He previously served as Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications in the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
of
Élisabeth Borne
Élisabeth Borne (; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from May 2022 to January 2024. A member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance (French political party), Renaissance, she is the secon ...
from 2022 to 2024 and Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
of
Gabriel Attal
Gabriel Nissim Attal de Couriss (; born 16 March 1989) is a French politician who was the prime minister of France from January to September 2024. He was the youngest and the first openly Gay man, gay prime minister in French history. A member ...
Politico Europe
''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the American news organization '' Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices in ...
Le Monde
(; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
''.
An academic by occupation, Barrot was elected to represent the 2nd constituency of the
Yvelines
Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the ÃŽle-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.department in 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 repr ...
in
2017
2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly.
Events January
* January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
(LREM), prior to joining the government. In 2024, he was elected president of the National Assembly Committee on Foreign Affairs, a position he held until his appointment as Foreign Minister.
Early life and career
Barrot was born in the
7th arrondissement of Paris
The 7th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. It is known for being, along with the 16th arrondissement and the ''commune'' of Neuilly-sur-Sein ...
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...
, both in 2008.
In 2013, Barrot became a research affiliate at the
Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management (branded as MIT Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs ...
at the
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
Haute-Loire
Haute-Loire (; or ''Naut Leir''; English: Upper Loire) is a landlocked department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Named after the Loire River, it is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche, Lozère, Canta ...
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
until his resignation in 2017, a position his father had held until 2004.
In the 2021 regional election, he was elected to the
Regional Council of ÃŽle-de-France
The Regional Council of ÃŽle-de-France () is the regional council of ÃŽle-de-France, France's most populous administrative region. Made up of 209 regional councillors elected for 6 years, it is headquartered in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, just north ...
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 repr ...
Yvelines
Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the ÃŽle-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.deputy
dividend stripping Dividend stripping is the practice of buying shares a short period before a dividend is declared, called cum-dividend, and then selling them when they go ex-dividend, when the previous owner is entitled to the dividend. On the day the company trade ...
in the wake of the CumEx Files revelations.
In addition to his committee assignments, Barrot was a member of the French-Uruguayan parliamentary friendship group.
In late 2017, Barrot was appointed by President of the National Assembly
François de Rugy
François () is a French language, French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis (given name), Francis.
People with the given name
* François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter
* Voltaire, Fran ...
to chair a ten-member working group on reforming the National Assembly. The group submitted two reports, in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
From February 2018, Barrot served as a Democratic Movement spokesperson, in tandem with Sarah El Haïry. He eventually succeeded Yann Wehrling as Secretary General of the Democratic Movement in December 2018, serving until July 2022 under the leadership of party president
Minister for Digital Transition and Telecommunications (2022–2024)
In July 2022, Barrot was appointed Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications in the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
of
Prime Minister
A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Élisabeth Borne
Élisabeth Borne (; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from May 2022 to January 2024. A member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance (French political party), Renaissance, she is the secon ...
.
He won a by-election in October 2022, triggered by the resignation of his substitute Anne Grignon—who had been representing him in the National Assembly after he joined the government—due to a legal incompatibility related to her eligibility.
In 2023, he criticized
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o as well as other Multimodal learning, multimodal models to create human-like re ...
and accused the service of not respecting
privacy law
Privacy law is a set of regulations that govern the collection, storage, and utilization of personal information from healthcare, governments, companies, public or private entities, or individuals.
Privacy laws are examined in relation to an ind ...
. However, he also stated being opposed to efforts to ban the service.
Minister Delegate for European Affairs (2024)
In February 2024, Barrot was appointed Minister Delegate for European Affairs under Foreign Minister
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
of Prime Minister
Gabriel Attal
Gabriel Nissim Attal de Couriss (; born 16 March 1989) is a French politician who was the prime minister of France from January to September 2024. He was the youngest and the first openly Gay man, gay prime minister in French history. A member ...
Foreign Affairs Committee Foreign Affairs Committee may refer to:
* Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development
* Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade
* Foreign Affairs Committee of t ...
while serving as the caretaker Minister Delegate for European Affairs.
Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs (2024–current)
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
of Prime Minister
Michel Barnier
Michel Jean Barnier (; born 9 January 1951) is a French politician who was Prime Minister of France from September to December 2024. A member of a series of Gaullist parties ( UDR, RPR, UMP, LR), Barnier has served in several French cabinet p ...
Von der Leyen Commission II
The second von der Leyen Commission is the current European Commission, in office since 1 December 2024. It consists of one commissioner from each of the member states of the European Union – including Ursula von der Leyen, its President of t ...
when he succeeded Barnier as prime minister.
On 29 September, Barrot traveled to Lebanon, two days prior to the start of the Israeli invasion of the country, stating France "stands with Lebanon", as the country was being pulled into a war "it did not choose". On 8 October, he called Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...
's rhetoric on the matter a "provocation".
In January 2025, Barrot and his German counterpart
Annalena Baerbock
Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock (; born 15 December 1980) is a German politician and diplomat of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. She served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), Germany's minister for foreign affairs from 2021 to 2025. I ...
visited Damascus to meet Syria's ''de facto'' new leader
Ahmed al-Sharaa
Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (born 29 October 1982) also known by his ''nom de guerre'' Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is a Syrian politician and former rebel commander serving as the president of Syria since January 2025. He previously served as the coun ...
on behalf of the European Union, thereby becoming the first ministers from the EU to visit the country since the
fall of the Assad regime
On 8 December 2024, the Assad regime collapsed during a 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, major offensive by Syrian opposition, opposition forces. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported mainly by the Turk ...
.
In February 2025 Barrot urged
G20
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stabil ...
states to show unambivalent support for the international rules-based order, including the sovereignty of Ukraine. Barrot said the real line of geopolitical division was not between north and south but between those who supported the international rules-based order and those who did not.
Political positions
In June 2020, Barrot together with fellow party member Patrick Mignola proposed a law to introduce mail-in voting to facilitate voting during the public health crisis caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic in France
The COVID-19 pandemic in France has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths.
The virus was confirmed to have reached France on 24 January 2020, when the first COVID-19 case in both Europe and France was identified in Bordeaux. T ...