Jean-Yves Le Drian

Jean-Yves Le Drian
President of the Regional Council of Brittany
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 December 2015
Preceded by	Pierrick Massiot
French Minister of Defence
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 May 2012
President	François Hollande
Prime Minister	Jean-Marc Ayrault Manuel Valls
Preceded by	Gérard Longuet
Personal details
Born	30 June 1947 Lorient, France
Political party	Socialist Party
Alma mater	University of Rennes 2
Religion	Roman Catholic

Jean-Yves Le Drian (French pronunciation: ​[ʒã.iv lə.dʁi.jã]); born 30 June 1947) is a French politician who is a member of the French Socialist Party. He has served as the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs under President François Hollande since 2012.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Jean-Yves Le Drian was born on 30 June 1947 in Lorient, Brittany, to working-class parents, Jean and Louisette, who were active members of the Young Christian Workers (Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne, or JOC, in French). He completed his studies at the University of Rennes, where he was an activist for the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (UNEF).^[1]

Political career

First of all interested by Breton Democratic Union (UDB) in the 1970s,^[3] he joined the French Socialist Party (PS) in May 1974. He served as the deputy mayor of Lorient in 1977 and then, at the age of 30, he became a member of the French National Assembly for Morbihan. He served until 1993 and then again from 1997 until June 2007.^[4]

He served as Minister of the Sea under the government of Prime Minister Édith Cresson from 1991 to 1992.

In 2004 at the top of the list Bretagne à gauche, Bretagne pour tous (PS-PCF-PRG-Les Verts-UDB), he won 58.66% in the runoff and a total of 58 seats in the regional council. He thus became regional president of Brittany. In October 2010 he became President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR).^[5]

He was nominated to serve as the Minister of Defence under Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on 16 May 2012.^[5] As Minister of Defence, he has been managing the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan and the deployment of French troops in the ongoing Northern Mali conflict and Operation Barkhane.

Awards and honours

•  Spain: Grand Cross (2015) of the Order of Isabella the Catholic^[6]

References

1. "Actualité – Personnalité – Jean-Yves Le Drian". Le Point. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
2. "CV: Jean-Yves LE DRIAN" (PDF). European Commission. 25 January 2011.
3. Raynaudon-Kerzerho, Maiwenn (1 March 2014). "L'Union démocratique bretonne : un demi-siècle de lutte pour l'autonomie" [The Breton Democratic Union: half a century of fight for the autonomy]. Bretons (in French) (96). Vannes/Gwened, Brittany: Les Éditions Blanc et Noir. p. 38. ISSN 0245-9507.
4. "Monsieur Jean-Yves LE DRIAN" Le Trombinoscope 29 May 2008, a commercial biographical database in French
5. "Jean-Yves Le Drian is the new French Minister for Defence". Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe. 18 May 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
6. "Real Decreto 1093/2015, de 4 de diciembre por el que se concede la Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica Jean-Yves Le Drian, Ministro de Defensa de la República Francesa". BOE (Spanish Official Journal). 5 December 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

External links