Bruno Retailleau

Bruno Daniel Marie Paul Retailleau (born 20 November 1960) is a French politician serving as President of The Republicans group in the Senate since 2014. He has represented the Vendée department in the Senate since 2004. Retailleau also served as President of the General Council of Vendée from 2010 to 2015 and President of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire from 2015 until 2017.

Bruno Retailleau
President of The Republicans group
in the Senate
Assumed office
2 October 2014
Preceded byJean-Claude Gaudin
Senator for Vendée
Assumed office
1 October 2004
President of the Regional Council
of Pays de la Loire
In office
18 December 2015 – 13 September 2017
Preceded byJacques Auxiette
Succeeded byChristelle Morançais
President of the General Council of Vendée
In office
30 November 2010 – 2 April 2015
Preceded byPhilippe de Villiers
Succeeded byYves Auvinet
Member of the National Assembly
for Vendée's 4th constituency
In office
26 November 1994 – 12 June 1997
Preceded byPhilippe de Villiers
Succeeded byPhilippe de Villiers
Personal details
Born
Bruno Daniel Marie Paul Retailleau

(1960-11-20) 20 November 1960
Cholet, France
NationalityFrench
Political partyThe Republicans (since 2015)
Other political
affiliations		Movement for France (1994–2010)
Union for a Popular Movement (2012–2015)
Alma materSciences Po

Early life and career

Retailleau was born in Cholet, Maine-et-Loire and grew up in Saint-Malô-du-Bois, Vendée. He graduated from Sciences Po in 1985. A friend of Philippe de Villiers, he worked for him at the Puy du Fou amusement park.

Political career

Early beginnings

A member of the Movement for France (MPF) until 2010, Retailleau became the Vendée General Councillor for the canton of Mortagne-sur-Sèvre in 1988, a position he retained until 2015. He became the member of the National Assembly for the fourth constituency of Vendée in 1994 upon the election of Philippe de Villiers as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), a position he did not seek election again in the 1997 election, as De Villiers was running for his old seat.

Member of the Senate

Instead, Retailleau joined the Senate in 2004, where he has been serving as chairman of the Republicans' group since 2014. In 2010, he succeeded De Villiers as President of the General Council of Vendée. In 2012, he joined the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

In the 2015 regional elections, Retailleau led a list in Pays de la Loire with the support of The Republicans (LR) and the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), which received over 42% of the vote in the second round. He supported the Aéroport du Grand Ouest project.[1][2] On 18 December 2015, he became President of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire, an office he resigned from in 2017 to focus on his activities in the Senate.

In the Republicans' 2016 primaries, Retailleau endorsed François Fillon as the party's candidate for the 2017 French presidential election.[3] He subsequently joined Fillon's team as campaign coordinator.[4]

Ahead of the Republicans' leadership election in 2019, Retailleau announced that he would run for the position as the party's chair.[5]

Political positions

In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Retailleau joined some 70 legislators from Europe, the US and Japan in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.[6]

References
  1. (in French) "Découvrir Bruno Retailleau". Archived from the original on 2015-10-09. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  2. (in French) "Retailleau: « La ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes est le symbole de l'affaissement de l'Etat »". Public Sénat. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  3. Ludovic Vigogne (April 20, 2016), Primaire à droite: la liste des premiers soutiens parlementaires L'Opinion.
  4. Brian Love (March 22, 2017), Fillon camp decries "soap opera" of sleaze reports a month from French election Reuters.
  5. Simon Carraud (June 19, 2019), Retailleau abandonne l'idée de briguer la présidence de LR Reuters.
  6. Stuart Lau (January 25, 2021), G7 lawmakers tell leaders to ‘stand up’ to China Politico Europe.
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