Brice Hortefeux

Brice Hortefeux, 2014

Brice Hortefeux (pronunciation: [bʁis ɔʁtəfø] * May 11, 1958 in Neuilly-sur-Seine , Hauts-de-Seine department ) is a French politician ( RPR , UMP , LR ). He was a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2005 and has been a member of the European Parliament again since 2011 . During Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency , he was Minister for Immigration and Integration (2007–2009), Labor (2009) and Home Affairs (2009–2011).

Origin, education and profession

Hortefeux was born the son of a banker and a history teacher in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. He studied law at the University of Paris-Nanterre (Paris X), graduated in 1982 with a license in private law and in 1984 with a maîtrise in public law . He left the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (IEP) in Paris in 1986 without a diploma after successfully passing the entrance examination for the state administration career of an administrateur territorially .

From 1986 to 1993 he worked as a civil servant, from 1993 to 1995 he was the office manager of the then budget minister Nicolas Sarkozy . He was then appointed prefect “on behalf of the public service” (chargé d'une mission de service public) , ie he had the status and received the salary of a prefect without holding a corresponding post. From 1998 to 1999 he was a senior official in the office of Senate President Christian Poncelet .

Political career

Hortefeux in 2008

Political party

Hortefeux was involved in the youth organization of the Gaullist Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) and campaigned for Jacques Chirac in 1981 . From 1991 to 2001 he was secretary of the RPR in the Puy-de-Dôme department . From 1998 he was a member of the national board of the RPR. This merged in 2002 in the center-right collecting party Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP). In this Hortefeux took over the chairmanship of the department Puy-de-Dôme and in 2004 became deputy general secretary of the whole party. In 2007 he was part of the interim party leadership when Sarkozy resigned from the party after being elected president . 2008–2009, Hortefeux was secretary of the UMP for the preparation of the elections. From January 2013 to June 2014, Hortefeux was deputy party chairman of the UMP. This was renamed in 2015 to Les Républicains .

Regional policy

In 1992 he was elected to the Auvergne Regional Council, where he was chairman of the budget commission from 1998 to 2004. He was a member of the regional council until the end of 2015, when Auvergne was merged with the Rhône-Alpes region . Since the beginning of 2016, Hortefeux has been Vice-President of the Regional Council of the new Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (under President Laurent Wauquiez ).

European Parliament

In September 1999 he moved into the European Parliament as a replacement for Nicolas Sarkozy , who surrendered the mandate he won in the European elections in June 1999 after just a few months. Hortefeux joined the conservative EPP-ED Group . He was a member of the Budget Committee from 1999 to 2001 , and then to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs until 2005 . He was also the delegate for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) from 1999–2004. Also in the 2004 European elections Hortefeux was elected to the European Parliament. After joining the Ministry of the Interior as Deputy Minister for Territorial Administration in June 2005, he resigned his mandate as a member of the European Parliament.

In the European elections in France in 2009 , Hortefeux again won a seat in the European Parliament, but initially did not take up the mandate in order to remain in the French government. In his place, Catherine Soullie took over the seat. After Hortefeux 'resignation from the French cabinet, Soullie declared her waiver of the mandate, so that on March 24, 2011 Hortefeux again moved in as a successor in parliament. There he was a member of the regional development committee for the legislative period until 2014 .

After his re-election in 2014, he was a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and was delegate for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union and in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean . In the 2019 European elections he was confirmed for a further legislative period and has since been a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs .

National politics

Interior Minister Hortefeux (right) with Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo , Industry Minister Christian Estrosi and President Nicolas Sarkozy (2010)

In the de Villepin cabinet , from June 2, 2005, Hortefeux was Assistant Minister in the Ministry of the Interior ( headed by Nicolas Sarkozy ), responsible for local authorities . After Sarkozy was elected President, Hortefeux was appointed Minister for Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Development Aid in May 2007. This ministry was newly created in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon .

From January 15, 2009, Hortefeux was Minister for Labor, Social Relations, Family, Solidarity and Urban Policy in the Fillon II cabinet and moved to the head of the Interior Ministry on June 23, 2009 during a cabinet reshuffle. The Ministry of Immigration was dissolved in November 2010 and this responsibility was added to Hortefeux's Ministry of the Interior. When the cabinet was reshuffled again on February 27, 2011, he left the government.

Controversy

During the UMP summer camp 2009 in Seignosse , Hortefeux told a young party member of Maghrebian origin that he did not correspond to the “prototype”. He added that the presence of such a person is not bad, but problems arise when there are many ( “Quand il y en a un, ça va. C'est quand il y en a beaucoup qu'il ya des Problem " ). Unnoticed by the Interior Minister, this statement was recorded by a film team and the video was published on the website of the daily newspaper Le Monde . Hortefeux tried several times to counter the emerging racism allegations by ultimately claiming that he had not referred to the ethnic origin of the person and the remark was jokingly directed against the residents of Auvergne . Nevertheless, on June 4, 2010, a French court sentenced him to a fine of 750 euros for racist insult ( injure raciale ). Never before has a Fifth Republic minister been convicted of this offense.

Private

Brice Hortefeux has been one of Nicolas Sarkozy's closest confidants since 1976. Among other things, he appeared as the best man at Sarkozy's first marriage and as the godfather of one of his sons. In the French press, he was given the attribute "le porte-flingue" (gun wrench) by Nicolas Sarkozy.