Brice Hortefeux (; born 11 May 1958) is a conservative

French politician The politics of France take place within the framework of a semi-presidential systems, semi-presidential system determined by the Constitution of France, French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "in ...

. He was

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

, Overseas Territories and Territorial collectivities. He was previously Minister for Labour, Labour Relations, the Family, Solidarity and Urban Affairs and Minister-Delegate for Local Government at the Ministry of the Interior and was a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 2011 to 2024.

Early life and education

Hortefeux was born in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...

but was raised in

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; or ) is a cultural region in central France. As of 2016 Auvergne is no longer an administrative division of France. It is generally regarded as conterminous with the land area of the historical Province of Auvergne, which was dis ...

. * Degree in

private law Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...

(1982) * Master's degree in

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...

(1984) * Studied at

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

Political career

Early beginnings

* Local authority administrator (1986–1994) (worked in

for mayor

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...

) * Regional councillor of

: Since 1992. Reelected in 1998, 2004, 2010. * Prefect, given responsibility for a government public service mission (1995) * Special adviser in the office of the President of the Senate (1998–1999) * Head of office of the Minister for the Budget and Communications and government spokesman (1993–1995)

Career in government

*Minister of the Interior, Overseas, Local Authorities and Immigration : 2010–2011. *Minister of the Interior, Overseas and Local authorities : 2009–2010. *Minister of Labor, Family and Social Affairs, Solidarity and the City : January–June 2009. *Minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Development Solidarity : 2007–2009. *Minister of Territorial collectivities : 2005–2007. Hortefeux is considered one of the most loyal political allies, and personal friend, of French president

. He is the godfather of one of Nicolas Sarkozy's sons. On 18 May 2007, he was appointed as the first Minister of Immigration, Integration,

National Identity National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity ...

and Cooperative Development in the government of Prime Minister

François Fillon François Charles Amand Fillon (; born 4 March 1954) is a French retired politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of The Republicans (previously known as the Union ...

. As such he has boosted the numbers of illegal immigrants forcibly repatriated from France, extended the network of detention centres (established also outside the larger conurbations in smaller cities such as Blois) and modified the rights of individuals and organizations which visit them. He is in favor of controls on immigration. He was the promoter of a law that toughens conditions of political asylum in France. He believes that France has a right to expel or welcome immigrants on a discretionary basis, citing as evidence the high unemployment and criminality rates of foreigners. He also points to the geographical concentration of foreigners in a small number of towns as evidence that they are not integrated in the country. As he declared in the newspaper ''

Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; ) is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of ...

'' on 8 November 2007: "France has the right to choose which immigrants it can accommodate... Let's muster the courage to face our problems! Do you find it normal that 60% of immigrants are concentrated in only 3 of our 22 regions? That the unemployment rate of these people is 22% and that their children are dropping out of school? No, we will not accept this.".''Le Parisien'', 8 octobre 2007 On M6's TV show ''Capital'', when asked if there were illegal immigrants in France, he replied: "If you dream of a country where there are only honest and clean citizens... In reality, it's a constant struggle." In August 2010 following an earlier fatal incident involving travellers and gendarmerie at Thésée, near St. Aignan, Loir et Cher, Hortefeux has vigorously pursued a policy of destroying illegal travellers' camps and imposing conditions for voluntary repatriations of Roma (or gypsies) to Romania and Bulgaria, a considerable number of which are in progress. A circular emanating from his office (chief of staff : Michel Bart) on 5 August 2010, specifically mentioning an ethnic criterion for these deportations provoked the ire of ministerial colleagues such as Éric Besson and the European commissioner,

Viviane Reding Viviane Adélaïde Reding (born 27 April 1951) is a Luxembourgish politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Luxembourg. She is a member of the Christian Social People's Party, part of the European People's Party. She ...

. An eirenic exchange with Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, the President of the French Bishops' Conference, representing contrasting reactions within the Catholic community, also ensued.

Member of the European Parliament

Hortefeux served as a

Member of European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2011. He was first elected in 1999 and later reelected in 2004 and 2009. As member of the

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement ( ; UMP ) was a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in France, political party in France, largely inspired by the Gaullism, Gaullist tradition. During its existence, the UMP was o ...

, he was part of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

group. During his time at the European Parliament, he sat on the Committee on International Trade, was a substitute for the Committee on Budgets and was a member of the delegation for relations with the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

countries and the

Arab Maghreb Union The Arab Maghreb Union ( '; AMU/UMA) is a political union and economic union trade agreement aiming for economic and future political unity among Arab countries that are located primarily in the Maghreb in North Africa. Its members are the natio ...

. As part of a reorganization of the UMP's leadership under their chairman

Jean-François Copé Jean-François Copé (; born 5 May 1964) is a French politician serving as Mayor of Meaux since 1995 with an interruption from 2002 to 2005. He was Government Spokesman between 2002 and 2007, when assumed other tenures in the government—inclu ...

in January 2013, Hortefeux became – alongside Christian Estrosi, Henri de Raincourt, Jean-Claude Gaudin, Roger Karoutchi and Gérard Longuet – one of the party’s six vice-presidents. Ahead of the 2022 presidential elections, Hortefeux publicly declared his support for

Valérie Pécresse Valérie Anne Émilie Pécresse (; Birth name, née Roux ; 14 July 1967) is a French politician who has been the President of the Regional Council (France), President of the Regional Council of Île-de-France since 2015. A member of The Republic ...

as the Republicans’ candidate and joined her campaign team as special adviser on institutional reform.

Political positions

Hortefeux is a supporter of immigrant repatriation from France. He has supported and incentivised

voluntary return Voluntary return or voluntary repatriation is the return of an migrant such as undocumented immigrants, rejected asylum seekers, refugees, unaccompanied minors, as well as second-generation immigrants who, of their own free-will, make the d ...

, in his role as Immigration Minister of France, for immigrant families. In 2007, enhancing the offer to €6,000 per family to leave the country, he claimed that the French government "must increase this measure to help voluntary return".

Controversy

On 10 September 2009, ''

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 ...

'' disclosed a video showing Hortefeux at the UMP Summer School in

Seignosse Seignosse (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Landes (department), Landes Departments of France, department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Population Tourism and leisure Surfing Seignosse is prized for surfing. Wi ...

, France, on Saturday, 5 September 2009. As he posed for a photograph with a young man of

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

origin, the following conversation can be heard (translation):

Female voice – He is Catholic, he eats
pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...
and
drinks A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothi ...
beer!

Hortefeux – Oh really? Well, he does not match the prototype at all!

Female voice – He is one of us... he is our little Arab.

Hortefeux – We always need one! When there is only one, it's okay. It's when there are many that problems begin.

In June 2010, a French court found Hortefeux guilty of a racial insult, and fined him 750 euros with an order to donate 2,000 euros to an anti-racism group. Hortefeux' lawyer said that they would appeal the ruling.

2010 cargo plane bomb plot

On 4 November 2010, Hortefeux said that one of the two bombs in the

2010 cargo plane bomb plot On October 29, 2010, two packages, each containing a bomb consisting of of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism, were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia's sec ...

was defused just 17 minutes before it was set to explode.

References

External links

*
Declaration of financial interests
(in French;

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

file)
Police question Sarkozy's former interior minister, Brice Hortefeux
RFI English {{DEFAULTSORT:Hortefeux, Brice 1958 births Living people Politicians from Neuilly-sur-Seine Rally for the Republic politicians Union for a Popular Movement politicians The Republicans (France) politicians The Strong Right French interior ministers Ministers of the overseas of France MEPs for France 1999–2004 MEPs for Massif-central–Centre 2004–2009 MEPs for Massif-central–Centre 2009–2014 MEPs for Massif-central–Centre 2014–2019 MEPs for France 2019–2024 The Republicans (France) MEPs Saint-Jean de Passy alumni Paris Nanterre University alumni Sciences Po alumni Members of the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes French politicians convicted of crimes