Carole Delga (; born 19 August 1971) is a French politician 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 th ...

(PS) who has been serving as the President of the Regional Council of

Occitania Occitania is the historical region in Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France (except ...

since 2016. Delga is considered to be a potential candidate in the 2027 French presidential election.

Political career

Delga has been a member of the Socialist Party since 2004.

Member of the National Assembly, 2012–2017

From 2012 until 2017, Delga was a member of 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 ...

, where she served on the Finance Committee (2012–2014) and the Defence Committee (2015–2017). In 2014, Delga briefly served as Secretary of State for Trade, Crafts, Consumer and Social Economy and Solidarity under Minister of Finance and Public Accounts Michel Sapin 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

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 ...

; she replaced Valérie Fourneyron who had resigned for health reasons. In June 2015, she left the government to launch her campaign for regional elections; she was replaced by Martine Pinville.

President of Occitanie, 2016–present

Ahead of the Socialist Party's 2017 primaries, Delta publicly endorsed Manuel Valls as the party's candidate for the presidential election later that year. Since 2017, she has been part of the party's leadership. Delga was re-elected in the 2021 French regional elections. Shortly after, she was also elected as president of Régions de France, a group representing the

regions of France France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (, singular ), of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collectivities, which ha ...

; it was the first time since 2016 that the association was led by a left-wing personality, and for the first time by a woman. Ahead of the 2022 presidential election, Delga endorsed

Anne Hidalgo Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu (, ; born 19 June 1959) is a Spanish-French politician who has served as Mayor of Paris since 2014, the first woman to hold the office. She is a member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS). Hidalg ...

as the Socialist Party's candidate. In 2023, she publicly endorsed Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol as candidate to challenge

Olivier Faure Olivier Faure (; born 18 August 1968) is a French politician who has served as the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party, First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party since 2018 and Deputy (France), Member of the Nati ...

for the party's leadership.

Political positions

Delga is a critic of the New Ecological and Social People's Union.

Controversy

In April 2019, Delga was sentenced by the Nîmes

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

to a fine of €8,000 and damages to the municipality of Beaucaire, Gard, for "discrimination based on political opinions" and "obstructing the exercise of an economic activity" after having refused to sign a city contract established by the municipality of Beaucaire led by Julien Sanchez, and not having chosen this municipality to host the future general high school built by the region in the Gard.Valérie Luxey (26 April 2019)
Beaucaire : Carole Delga condamnée pour discrimination envers le maire RN
'' France 3 Midi-Pyrénées''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delga, Carole 1971 births Living people Presidents of the Regional Council of Occitania (administrative region) Members of the Regional Council of Occitania (administrative region) Socialist Party (France) politicians Politicians from Toulouse Presidents of French regions and overseas collectivities Women government ministers of France Women mayors of places in France 21st-century French women politicians Toulouse 1 University Capitole alumni