Gérald Darmanin

In the 2012 legislative election, Darmanin was elected to the National Assembly in the tenth constituency of Nord; at the time, he was one of the country’s youngest lawmakers.[10] He ran two years later for election as Mayor of Tourcoing and won, establishing himself on the national political scene.[11] Former President Nicolas Sarkozy brought Darmanin onboard as director of his primary election campaign in 2016.[12]

In response of the Fillon affair, Darmanin renounced his support for LR candidate François Fillon in the 2017 presidential election and resigned from his position as the party’s deputy general secretary.[13]

In May 2017, Darmanin was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron to be Minister of Public Action and Accounts in the First Philippe Government. In this capacity, he supported Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, although himself a cabinet member.[14] At the time of his appointment, he was one of the youngest members in Édouard Philippe's government.[15]

Soon after taking office, Darmanin announced plans to achieve 4.5 billion euros ($5.13 billion) in savings on the French government's operational budget in 2017.[16] That year, he managed to bring the country's the budget deficit below the EU-mandated limit of 3 percent of GDP, the first time in a decade for France.[17] He also helped implement Macron’s main tax reforms and oversaw an overhaul of tax collection.[18]

In 2018 Darmanin was accused of sexual coercion and harassment by two women relating to alleged misconduct in 2009 and between 2014 and 2017, with one of the women alleging that while Mayor of Tourcoing he asked for sexual favours in exchange for providing her with social housing. However prosecutors dropped the case, claiming an inability to determine an "absence of consent", as Darmanin denied both allegations.[19] In June 2020, the Paris appeal court ordered the reopening of the investigation.[20]

In 2019, Darmanin oversaw an widely discussed agreement between Google and French tax authorities, marking the end of a four-year investigation that looked at whether the company routed profits from its French activities to Ireland, which was a lower-tax jurisdiction at the time. Google eventually agreed to pay almost 1 billion euros to settle all of its litigation with the tax authorities.[21]

In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Darmanin oversaw the French government’s efforts to mobilise 150 billion euros to support industries the hardest hit by the crisis as part of a response that pushed debt to record levels.[22][23]

In the 2020 French municipal elections, Darmanin was re-elected as mayor of Tourcoing.[24]

In 2020, Darmanin was appointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex, succeeding Christophe Castaner.

Following the murder of Samuel Paty in October 2020, Darmanin announced a big police sweep against several individuals and ordered the shuttering of the Pantin mosque in the Parisian suburb Seine-Saint-Denis after it re-broadcast a video condemning Paty.[25][26] He also ordered the dissolution of other associations with ties to radical Islam[27] and deemed “separatist”.[28]

Shortly after, in response to the 2020 Nice stabbing committed by Tunisian Brahim Aouissaoui, Darmanin negotiated the deportation of dozens Tunisian migrants.[29]

In February 2020, Darmanin sponsored a bill that French lawmakers said they hope will uproot radical Islam in France.[30] Darmanin said the aim of the bill is to stop "an Islamist hostile takeover targeting Muslims."[30]