Christophe Béchu (born 11 June 1974) is a French politician who has been serving as Minister for Ecological Transition and Cohesion of the Territories in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

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 is ...

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 2022. Béchu previously was the

President of the General Council In France, the President of the Departmental Council (French: ''Président du Conseil départemental'') is the locally elected head of the departmental council, the assembly governing a department in France. The position is elected by the depart ...

of the

Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire () is a department in the Loire Valley in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France. It is named after the two rivers, Maine and the Loire. It borders Mayenne and Sarthe to the north, Loire-Atlantique to the west, Indre-et ...

department from 2004 to 2014. He briefly served as 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

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

until 2011, representing the West France constituency. A former member of the centre-right

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...

, later the Republicans (LR), and the DL, Béchu became the secretary general of Horizons in 2021. Béchu briefly served as Minister of Relations with Local Authorities from 20 May to 4 July 2022.Marius Bocquet (20 May 2022)
Gouvernement : Christophe Béchu, le premier des philippistes, nommé ministre délégué aux Collectivités territoriales
''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

''.

Political career

Béchu has represented the Canton of Angers-Nord-Ouest since 2001, and was re-elected there during the

2008 French cantonal elections Cantonal elections to elect half the membership of the general councils of France's 100 departments were held on 9 and 16 March 2008. These elections coincided with the municipal elections, in which the left did well. Electoral system The canton ...

. However, he was narrowly defeated by the incumbent PS

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 ...

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

, Jean-Claude Antonini, in the 2008 municipal elections.

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2011

In 2009, the UMP selected him to lead the UMP list in the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

constituency ahead of the 2009 European elections. He was elected to the

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 ...

as a result. His list won 27.16% of the vote and three MEPs. In parliament, he served on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the parliament's delegation for relations with Japan. He resigned in January 2011. Béchu lost the regional election of 2010 to become President of

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

region, but was elected as a regional councillor. In the 2011 elections, he was elected as a Senator of

, and thereafter resigned from regional council of Pays-de-Loire.

Mayor of Angers, 2014–2022

During the

2014 French municipal elections The French municipal elections of 2014 were held on 23 March of that year with a second round of voting, where necessary, on 30 March to elect the municipal councils of France's communes. The first task of each newly constituted municipal council i ...

, Béchu competed against Frédéric Béatse, incumbent, and became the new mayor of Angers on 4 April 2014. Béchu was re-elected in 2020. In 2016, Béchu caused controversy when he requested the removal of posters that had been installed as part of a governmental

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

prevention campaign "not to expose a young public to a message they cannot understand“; at the time, Minister of Health Marisol Touraine denounced Béchu as " homophobe."

Other activities

* Agence de financement des infrastructures de transport de France (AFITF), chair of the board of directors * Dexia Crédit Local, member of the board of directors (2007–2009)

Political positions

In 2019, Béchu publicly declared his support for incumbent

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

.Voici la tribune des 72 maires et élus locaux de droite et du centre qui annoncent leur soutien à Macron
''

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 ...

'', 8 June 2019. In 2022, Bechu sponsored regulations to re-allow lark hunting in France. This is after previous regulations were struck down as being a violation of EU law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bechu, Christophe 1974 births Living people People from Angers Liberal Democracy (France) politicians The Republicans (France) politicians Modern and Humanist France French Senators of the Fifth Republic Mayors of places in Pays de la Loire MEPs for West France 2009–2014 Union for a Popular Movement MEPs Sciences Po alumni Senators of Maine-et-Loire Horizons politicians Members of the Borne government