Sylvia Pinel (; born 28 September 1977) is a French politician who served as a member of the

National Assembly of France The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

from 2016 to

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, representing the 2nd constituency in the

Tarn-et-Garonne Tarn-et-Garonne (; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania Regions of France, region in Southern France. It is traversed by the rivers Tarn (river), Tarn and Garonne, from which it takes its n ...

department. Since 3 September 2016, she has been the leader of the moderate and social-liberal centre-left

Radical Party of the Left The Radical Party of the Left (, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG has been a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Socialist Party (, PS). Af ...

Early life and education

Pinel attended Lycée Michelet in

Montauban Montauban (, ; ) is a commune in the southern French department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, and the sixth most populated of Oc ...

, and received a DESS focusing on litigation and arbitration and a

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domes ...

in European law at Toulouse at the

Toulouse 1 University Capitole Toulouse Capitole University (, ) is a public university in Toulouse, France. It is one of the three universities of the city of Toulouse, in southwestern France. The university, presided by Hugues Kenfack, focuses on social sciences, law, polit ...

, she studied her first year of law school at the university center of

. Pinel's mother was Deputy Mayor of Fabas, worked with Senator-Mayor radical Pierre Tajan. Her father, Michel Pinel, who died in 2011, was an alderman in Gargas.

Political career

Member of the National Assembly, 2007–2012

In the second round (run-off) election to the National Assembly in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, Pinel was elected in the 2nd constituency of

(

Castelsarrasin Castelsarrasin (; ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in Occitanie region of France. The inhabitants are called ''Castelsarrasinois''. It is the second most populous commune in Tarn-et-Garonne after Montauban. It is served by Ca ...

). In the second round (run-off) election to the National Assembly in 2012, she was re-elected in the same constituency by 30,445 votes (54.31%) to 20,417 (40.14%) for her opponent, Dulac; there were 50,862 valid votes cast out of 89,289 electors. In parliament, Pinel served on the

Committee on Legal Affairs The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities The main responsibilities of the committee are the interpretation and application of international and European law and the compliance of European U ...

(2007-2012) and the Defence Committee (2016-2017).

Career in government

On 16 May 2012, Pinel was appointed Junior Minister for Crafts, Trade, and Tourism at the French Ministry of Productive Recovery by President

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

; shortly after, on 18 June 2012, she became Minister for Crafts, Trade, and Tourism at the French Ministry of Productive Recovery. On 2 April 2014, Pinel was appointed Minister of Territorial Equality and Housing 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 ...

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 ...

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (born 13August 1962) is a French–Spanish politician who serves as Minister of the Overseas in the Bayrou government since 2024. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president Françoi ...

. During her time in office, France announced measures in 2015 to boost its housing market, providing €2 billion ($2.15 billion) in tax relief to banks offering new zero-interest mortgages. 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 th ...

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

, Pinel ran to become the party's candidate in the

2017 French presidential election Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April and 7 May 2017. Incumbent president François Hollande of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS) was eligible to run for a second term, but declared on 1 December 2016 that he wo ...

; she was the only female candidate. She eventually lost against

Benoît Hamon Benoît Hamon (; born 26 June 1967) is a French politician known for his former role within the Socialist Party (PS) and Party of European Socialists (PES) and his political party Génération.s. Hamon joined the Socialist Party in 1988 an ...

Member of the National Assembly, 2017–2022

In the second round (run-off) of the

2017 French legislative election Legislative elections in France, Legislative elections were held in France on 11 and 18 June 2017 (with different dates for voters overseas) to elect the 577 Member of Parliament (France), members of the 15th legislature of the French Fifth Rep ...

, Pinel was re-elected in the same constituency by 21,398 votes (55.40%) to 17,230 (44.60%) for her National Front opponent, Romain Lopez; there were 38,628 valid votes cast out of 93,329 electors. In parliament, Pinel served on the Commission on Economic Affairs from 2019 to 2022. She was also a member of the Finance Committee (2017-2020). Following the formation of the

Liberties and Territories Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories (, LIOT), formerly Liberties & Territories (, LT), is a Big tent, catch-all parliamentary group in the National Assembly (France), French National Assembly. It was formed on 17 October 2018, with ...

(LT) parliamentary group in 2018, Pinel became its deputy chairwoman, under the leadership of co-chairs

Bertrand Pancher Bertrand Pancher (; born 5 June 1958, in Saint-Mihiel) is a French politician of the Radical Party (Rad) who has been serving as a member of the National Assembly of France since the 2007 elections, representing the Meuse department. Politica ...

and

Philippe Vigier Philippe Vigier (; born 3 February 1958) is a French politician who served as Minister Delegate for the Overseas in the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne from 2023 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), which he join ...

. When Vigier left the group in 2020, she succeeded him as co-chair. Pinel lost her seat in the first round in the

2022 French legislative election Legislative elections in France, Legislative elections were held in France on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 Deputy (France), members of the 16th National Assembly (France), National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic. Th ...

. It was won by

National Rally The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right politics, far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and French nationalism, nationalist. It is the single largest Nat ...

candidate Marine Hamelet in the second round.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinel, Sylvia 1977 births Living people People from L'Union Radical Party of the Left politicians Radical Movement 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 Members of Parliament for Tarn-et-Garonne Regional councillors of France Women government ministers of France Women members of the National Assembly (France) 21st-century French women politicians Toulouse 1 University Capitole alumni