Martine Aubry

Martine Aubry
First Secretary of the Socialist Party
In office
26 November 2008 – 12 September 2012*
Preceded by François Hollande
Succeeded by Harlem Désir
Mayor of Lille
Assumed office
25 March 2001
Preceded by Pierre Mauroy
Minister of Social Affairs
In office
2 June 1997 – 18 October 2000
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin
Preceded by Jean-Claude Gaudin
Succeeded by Élisabeth Guigou
Minister of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training
In office
15 May 1991 – 28 March 1993
Prime Minister Édith Cresson
Pierre Bérégovoy
Preceded by Jean-Pierre Soisson
Succeeded by Michel Giraud
Member of the National Assembly
for Nord's 5th Constituency
In office
12 June 1997 – 4 July 1997
Preceded by Bernard Davoine
Succeeded by Bernard Davoine
Personal details
Born (1950-08-08) 8 August 1950
Paris, France
Political party Socialist Party
Alma mater Pantheon-Assas University
Institute of Political Studies, Paris
National School of Administration, Strasbourg
Signature
  • Harlem Désir served as Acting Leader from 30 June 2011 – 16 October 2011.

Martine Louise Marie Aubry (French pronunciation: ​[maʁtin obʁi]; née Delors; born 8 August 1950) is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste, or PS) from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the first female Mayor of Lille (Nord) since March 2001. Her father, Jacques Delors, served as Minister of Finance under President François Mitterrand and was also President of the European Commission.

Aubry joined the PS in 1974 and was appointed Minister of Labour by Prime Minister Édith Cresson in 1991, but lost her position in 1993 after the Right won the legislative elections. However, she became Minister of Social Affairs when Lionel Jospin was appointed Prime Minister in 1997. She is mostly known for having pushed the popular 35-hour workweek law, known as the "Loi Aubry", reducing the nominal length of the normal full-time working week from 39 to 35 hours, and the law that created Couverture maladie universelle (Universal health care coverage).

Aubry stepped down from her Cabinet post in 2001 to be elected Mayor of Lille in place of Pierre Mauroy. Aubry subsequently lost her seat in the National Assembly in the general election of 2002. In March 2008, she was reelected Mayor of Lille, with 66.55% of the votes.

In November 2008, Aubry was elected to lead the Socialist Party, narrowly defeating Ségolène Royal. While Royal disputed the results, the Socialist Party declared on November 25, 2008 that Aubry had won the contested election. On 28 June 2011, Martine Aubry announced she would seek the Socialist nomination to run in the 2012 presidential election, ultimately losing to François Hollande, her predecessor as First Secretary.

Biography

Early life and education

Born in Paris, Aubry is the daughter of Jacques Delors, French Minister of Finance (1981–1985) and European Commission President (1985–1995), and his wife. Aubry was educated at the lycée Notre-Dame-des-Oiseaux[1] and the lycée Paul-Valéry (in Paris).[2] She holds a degree in economic science from Panthéon-Assas University.[3]

She did additional studies, gaining a diploma from the Institut des Sciences Sociales du Travail, and one from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (or Sciences Po) in 1972. Between 1973 and 1975, Aubry studied at the École nationale d'administration (ÉNA, National School of Administration).

Marriage and family

She married Xavier Aubry and they divorced. She is married to Jean-Louis Brochen.

Professional career

In 1975 Aubry became a civil administrator at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (France) (Ministère du Travail et des Affaires sociales). During this period, she was active within the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT).

She became a professor at ÉNA in 1978. In addition, she was seconded to the State Council between 1980 and 1981.

Following the election of François Mitterrand to the French presidency in 1981, Aubry successively held several posts at the Ministry of Social Affairs, in the cabinets of Jean Auroux and Pierre Bérégovoy. In 1984, she investigated French asbestos policy for the Comité Permanent Amiante (Permanent Asbestos Committee, an informal public-private working group formed to manage the health problems of workers affected by asbestos). The group's deputy director, Jean-Luc Pasquier, testified before the courts to account for the group's members' actions.

After the defeat of the socialists in the French legislative election of 1986, Aubry was named Master of Requests at the State Council. From 1989 to 1991, she took up the post of Assistant Director at Pechiney, working with Jean Gandois. She was involved with the opening of a plant at Dunkerque and the closure of the aluminium works at Noguères.[4]

Political career

Minister of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training: 1991-1993

Aubry was named Minister of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training by Édith Cresson, and carried on in this capacity in the Bérégovoy ministry until March 1993. According to Jean-Luc Pasquier,[5] she supported the controlled use of asbestos whilst all other members of the EEC supported an outright ban. She caused the French veto of a European decree against the use of asbestos.[6] France did not ban asbestos until 1997.[7]

In January 2010, a public health judge charged with investigating former government measures on asbestos had Aubry interrogated by gendarmes in Lille.[8]

When the Right came into power at the French legislative election in 1986, Aubry started the Fondation Agir Contre l'Exclusion (FACE, the Act Against Exclusion Foundation). In 1995, Pierre Mauroy named her as the first deputy to the Mayor of Lille, thus giving her a foothold in the department of Nord.

Lionel Jospin, who became the socialist candidate as French President in 1995, made her his campaign spokesman during the presidential campaign. Upon his defeat, Jospin became first secretary of the Socialist Party, and offered her the number two spot, which Aubry refused.

Aubry had good relations with part of the establishment, especially with her former Pechiney boss, Jean Gandois, and the Parti communiste francais. But she did not get on well with the unions, in particular with Nicole Notat, the former General Secretary of the CFDT

Aubry has been described as hard and demanding. She counters, "Je dis les choses en face, je ne suis pas faux-cul. Mais je crois être bien moins dure que beaucoup de gens en politique. Je suis même peut-être trop sensible. (I'm up-front, and I'm not a hypocrite. But I think I'm much less hard than many politicians. I may even be too sensitive.)[4] "

Minister of Employment and Solidarity: 1997-2000

Elected as a member of the National Assembly, Aubry was appointed in 1997 as Minister of Employment and Solidarity, the most important minister after the Prime Minister. The same year, to fight unemployment, she created a new employment contract for young people (Emplois-jeunes) with financial help from the government. In 1998, a law establishing the 35-hour workweek was adopted.

In 1999, the Couverture maladie universelle (CMU), a program that reimburses medical expenses through social security for everyone, was voted through. Furthermore, for people on low incomes, the CMU offers complementary health coverage of 100%, which is added to standard Social Security payments; this avoids the necessity for additional private (top-up) insurance.

2012 Presidential candidacy

On June 28, 2011, Aubry said in a televised address from the former train station of Lille-Saint-Sauveur : "I have decided to propose my candidacy to the presidential election".[9]

Following the first round of the citizens primary, she faced François Hollande in the second round of voting on October 16 in a two-way runoff. In the final round of voting, Hollande won the nomination with 56.6% of the vote.

After Aubry's defeat in the primaries, she became one of the main supporters of the Francois Hollande presidential campaign. Aubry's name had been mentioned as a potential prime minister for François Hollande.[10] But, after Hollande was elected President, he chose Jean-Marc Ayrault as Prime Minister; Aubry refused to join his cabinet.[11]

From 2014: statements of divergence

On several occasions, Aubry expressed criticism of the Manuel Valls government, including the fact that he was chosen.[12] In October 2014, she asked for a reorientation of the economic policy.[13] During a press conference held September 23, 2015, where Aubry confirmed the choice of Pierre de Saintignon as the head of list for the next coming Regional Elections, she said that the bad polls of the list are partly caused by some choices of the government. She was criticising Emmanuel Macron, Minister of Economy since 2014. «Macron ? How to tell it... The cup is full» she said.[14]

Political positions held

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ it was there that she met and became friends with Chantal Goya
  2. ↑ Site of the lycée, citing her as an alumna
  3. ↑ Mathieu, Béatrice; Deschamps, Pascale-Marie; Mas, Isabelle; Collomp, Florentin; Steinmann, Lionel (18 December 1997). "Où étaient-ils ?". L'Expansion (in French).
  4. 1 2 Jean-Michel Aphatie et Corinne Lhaik, « Une femme ambitieuse » Archived December 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine., L'Express, 28 August 1997 (French)
  5. ↑ Cité par François Malye
  6. ↑ Pierre Mabut, France : Amiante: manifestation de travailleurs français demandant que justice soit faite contre les empoisonneurs, WSWS amiante, 26 octobre 2005
  7. ↑ Newsletter of the Asbestos Institute Archived October 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Translation of article by François Malye in Le Point, Sedulia blog
  9. ↑ "French Socialist Chief Aubry Seeks Party Backing For 2012 Election", Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
  10. ↑ "Aubry, bien placée pour Matignon ?". Leparisien.fr. Retrieved 2014-06-23.
  11. ↑ Samuel, Henry (16 May 2012). "Francois Hollande chooses first cabinet as Martine Aubry is snubbed". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  12. ↑ François-Xavier Bourmaud (2014-04-05). "Martine Aubry to maneuver against Manuel Valls" (Martine Aubry à la manœuvre contre Manuel Valls). Le Figaro. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  13. ↑ "Aubry asks Hollande a "reorientation of the economic policy"" (PS : Aubry demande à Hollande une «réorientation de la politique économique»). Le Parisien. 2014-10-19. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  14. ↑ "Aubry says: "Macron ? How to tell it... The cup is full"" (Aubry: «Macron ? Comment vous dire... Ras-le-bol»). Liberation. 2015-09-03.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Martine Aubry.
Political offices
Preceded by
Jean-Pierre Soisson		 Minister of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training
1991–1993 		Succeeded by
Michel Giraud
Preceded by
Jean-Claude Gaudin		 Minister of Social Affairs
1997–2000 		Succeeded by
Élisabeth Guigou
Preceded by
Pierre Mauroy		 Mayor of Lille
2001–present 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
François Hollande		 First Secretary of the Socialist Party
2008–2012 		Succeeded by
Harlem Désir
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