Stéphane Le Foll (; born 3 February 1960) is a French politician serving 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 Le Mans since 2018. A member of 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 t ...

, he was

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

under President François Hollande from 2012 to 2017.

Biography

Early political career

Born in Le Mans, Le Foll was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

for the Socialist Party, part of

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom. ...

, in 2004. He served until 2012, when he was appointed to the Government of France. While he successfully stood as a candidate for 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 ...

in the 2012 legislative election, he resigned to remain

and fellow party member

Sylvie Tolmont Sylvie Tolmont (born 9 October 1962) is a French politician from the Socialist Party, who has been the member of the National Assembly for Sarthe's 4th constituency since 2012. On 9 March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in France, she teste ...

took the seat.

Minister of Agriculture

As Minister of Agriculture in all governments appointed by François Hollande, he was in charge of reforming the

Common Agricultural Policy The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce the ...

. He also put an accent on "re-socialising rural territories in France". In 2014, he replaced

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem Najat Vallaud-Belkacem (; ar, link=no, نجاة فالو بلقاسم; Riffian-Berber: ⵏⴰⵊⴰⵜ ⴱⵍⵇⴰⵙⵎ; born 4 October 1977) is a former Moroccan-French jurist and politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who was the first Fre ...

as Government Spokesperson, holding the weekly press briefing at the Élysée Palace. In 2016, he became the longest-serving Minister of Agriculture since the office was established in 1836.

Mayor of Le Mans

He was reelected to the

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

. Le Foll unsuccessfully stood for the leadership of the Socialist Party at the Aubervilliers Congress in 2018. After the death of

Jean-Claude Boulard Jean-Claude Boulard (28 March 1943 – 1 June 2018) was a French politician. He was mayor of Le Mans from 2001 until his death, senator from 2014 to 2017, and deputy of National Assembly from 1988 to 1993 and again from 1997 to 2002. Early life B ...

, Le Foll became

of Le Mans. He was succeeded by Tolmont in Parliament, his predecessor.Stéphane Le Foll rejoint la mairie du Mans et s’éloigne du siège du PS
''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', 14 June 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Foll, Stephane 1960 births Living people French people of Breton descent MEPs for West France 2004–2009 MEPs for West France 2009–2014 Socialist Party (France) MEPs French Ministers of Agriculture People from Le Mans University of Nantes alumni Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Mayors of places in Pays de la Loire Politicians from Pays de la Loire