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 ...
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 ...
, he was LREM's General Secretary from October 2016. He briefly served as Minister for the Cohesion of Territories between May and June 2017 before resigning due to nepotism accusations. Following his resignation, he became the leader of the party's
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
in the National Assembly in June 2017 and then was elected to the Chamber's Presidency in September 2018.
In June 2022, he became the third incumbent presiding officer of the French
lower house
A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...
in history to be unseated after distant predecessors Raymond Forni in 2002 and
Armand Marrast
Armand Marrast (June 5, 1801, Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne, Saint-Gaudens–March 10, 1852, Paris) was a French journalist, politician and List of mayors of Paris, mayor of Paris. Editor of ''La Tribune'' (1830-35) and ''Le National'' (from 1836), ...
in 1849 (during the
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic ( or ), officially the French Republic (), was the second republican government of France. It existed from 1848 until its dissolution in 1852.
Following the final defeat of Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle ...
Bünde
Bünde (; ) is a town in the Herford district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Bünde is situated between Osnabrück (west), Hannover (east) and Bielefeld (south).
Waterways
The town is crossed from west to east by the River Else ...
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 ...
''. In 1991, Ferrand became the communications advisor for Kofi Yamgnane, the then- secretary of state to the Minister of Social Affairs and Integration.
Career
Early beginnings
Ferrand joined 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) in 1980 and was elected as the councillor in the township of
Carhaix-Plouguer
Carhaix-Plouguer (; ), commonly known as just Carhaix (), is a commune in the French department of Finistère, region of Brittany, France. The commune was created in 1957 by the merger of the former communes Carhaix and Plouguer.
in 1998 as his first elected office. In the municipal elections in 2001 and 2008, Ferrand lost in both times, obtaining 31% of the vote in 2008.
In the 2010 regional elections, Ferrard was one of the PS nominees for the
and later the Social Affairs Committee. He has never worked in the agricultural or agri-food sector, but is co-chairman of the agricultural and agro-food industries group. He particularly involves himself in social issues and the use of cheaper labour than currently available.
While on the Social Affairs Committee, Ferrand was an EU-appointed rapporteur on resolutions around workers and the use of cheaper European labor. In his report, he stated that European workers feel detached due to the lack of social cohesion and the use of cheaper labour to replace them. He advocates measures to limit the replacement of workers.
Despite Ferrand's opposition to the Bonnets Rouges movement against the eco-tax, which was started by the Fillon government and further expanded upon by the Ayrault Government, he took a stand against the expansions, saying they underline the complexity of the tax system. He supports amendments to the eco-tax. After there was a postponement of the eco-tax, Ferrand and other Breton politicians asked Minister of Energy,
to rethink the tax plan.
On 3 October 2014, the 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 ...
appointed Ferrard along with the minister of economy,
to work on a plan to reform regulations based around labour. He was tasked with looking at the "legal framework that restricts labour from developing" while paying attention to the different situations from many different regions. After consulting many trade unions, experts and other associations, he submitted the report that stresses that reforming the regulated labor market is needed but "reform, don't break, this includes twenty-eight proposals that are aimed particularly at promoting young people's access to the job market."
This reform was eventually put to 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 it was amended by the members of the assembly which resulted in the "Act for Growth, Activity and Equal Opportunity" or the which was lobbied against by unions and other organizations.
Ferrand was then appointed as the general rapporteur, one of the biggest reforms within the first five years of President Hollande's term with over 300 articles and sectors such as: transport, savings, labor courts, housings and qualified professions being reformed. More than one hundred and eleven hours went into debate in the National Assembly over the reform. The text was eventually adopted including measures that were originally not there but added during parliamentary debate such as: Letting commercial stores open on Sundays, liberalization of transport services and encouraging qualified professions to allow young people into the profession.
General Secretary of LREM party (October 2016)
On 16 October 2016, Ferrand was appointed General Secretary of En Marche! by
, someone he worked with closely when he was the minister for Economy. The following month, he resigned from leading the PS group in the regional council for
Finistère
Finistère (, ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest, France, Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.First Philippe government
The first Philippe government ( French: ''Gouvernement Édouard Philippe I'') was the fortieth government of the French Fifth Republic. It was the first government formed by Édouard Philippe under President Emmanuel Macron, prior to the 2017 le ...
, a new Ministry which merged the former Housing, City and Territory Management ministries in one brand-new ministry.
Shortly into his tenure, he faced accusations of nepotism and, on 1 June 2017, the Brest Prosecutor opened preliminary investigations into the allegations.
On 19 June 2017, just a day after easily getting reelected as MP in his Finistère constituency in the second round of the 2017 parliamentary elections, Ferrand resigned from Cabinet at the President's request. Macron asked for him to step down as Minister and lead the LREM parliamentary party in the National Assembly instead.
Elected leader of the LREM party (June 2017)
On 24 June 2017, it was announced that Ferrand was officially elected leader of
group in the National Assembly with 306 votes and 2 abstentions.
From November 2017 to June 2022, Ferrand has been part of LREM's executive board under the leadership of the party's successive chairmen
Stanislas Guerini
Stanislas Guerini (; born 14 May 1982) is a French politician who served as Minister of Public Transformation and Service in the government of successive Prime Ministers Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal between 2022 and 2024.
Prior to enter ...
.
President of the National Assembly (2018-2022)
On 12 September 2018, after being selected as the majority's candidate in an internal primary, Ferrand was elected President of the National Assembly with 254 votes out of 484, replacing LREM colleague
François de Rugy
François () is a French language, French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis (given name), Francis.
People with the given name
* François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter
* Voltaire, Fran ...
who had just been appointed Minister for Ecological and Solidary Transition in the Second Philippe Government.
As presiding officer of the Assembly, he oversaw a sweeping reform of the lower house's parliamentary procedure and rules in May 2019. Later that year, in September, he caused controversy by allegedly twisting the result of a show of hands on a majority amendment that would have been defeated otherwise.
Ahead of the 2022 legislative elections, he helped forming a coalition of LREM with two other centrist parties –
Democratic Movement Democratic Movement may refer to:
*Brazilian Democratic Movement
*Democratic Movement (France)
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*Democratic Movement (Italy)
*Democratic Italian Movement
*Democratic Movement (San Marino)
*Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzst ...
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
.
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 ...
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 ...
''.
President of the Constitutional Council
On 19 February 2025, after his appointment by the President
, Ferrand was confirmed as President of the Constitutional Council, by a slim majority of one vote. The abstention of the
Rassemblement National
The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and nationalist. It is the single largest parliamentary opposition party in the Nati ...
party saved President Macron from a stinging rebuke. The appointment was approved by the Law Committees of the Parliament's Houses.