Jean Castex

This article concerns a French politician; for the French sculptor, see Jean-Jacques Castex .

Jean Castex (2011)

Jean Castex (born June 25, 1965 in Vic-Fezensac , Département Gers ) is a top French civil servant and politician who has served as French Prime Minister since July 3, 2020 . He was a member of the Les Républicains party , from which he resigned immediately before his appointment, and since 2008 has been mayor of the commune of Prades in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in the extreme south of France.

Career

Jean Castex was born in Vic-Fezensac, Occitan in 1965 . His grandfather Marc Castex was mayor of this community and in the 1980s senator for the liberal-conservative UDF . He graduated from the Baccalauréat in 1982 , studied history at the University of Toulouse (graduating with a license ) and then went through the service publique (public service) program at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), from which he graduated in 1986. This was followed in 1987 as a maîtrise in public law and studied at the École nationale d'administration (ENA), which he graduated in 1991 in the class named after Victor Hugo .

He then became an official at the Cour des Comptes . In 1996 he was transferred to the administration of the Var department , where he headed the health and social department. From 1999 to 2001 he was Secretary General of the Prefecture of the Vaucluse Department and Sub-Prefect for Urban Policy. From 2001 to 2004 Castex was President of the Regional Audit Office of Alsace . At the same time, he taught from 2002 to 2005 as Maître de conférences for public finance at the ENA and as an associate professor at the Université Robert Schuman (Strasbourg III). Castex moved to the French Ministry of Health in 2004, where he was in charge of hospitals and care organization. From 2006 to 2008 he was Chief of Staff to Xavier Bertrand ( UMP ), who was then Minister of Health and later Minister of Labor. President Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP) appointed Castex as his social adviser in November 2010. Between 2011 and 2012 he acted as Deputy Secretary General of the President's Office.

Seat of the Mayor of Prades

Since 2008, Castex has also been mayor of the small town of Prades, known from Pablo Casals , where he was re-elected in the local elections in March 2020 with 76% of the vote. From 2009 he was president of the Association of Municipalities Conflent-Canigó to which Prades and surrounding communities have come together. From 2010 to 2015 he was a member of the Regional Council of Languedoc-Roussillon , from 2015 of the Departmental Council of Pyrénées-Orientales . He was a member of the center-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP), which renamed itself Les Républicains (LR) in 2015 . Within his party, Castex was considered socio-politically conservative .

From 2017 he was the government representative for the preparation of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and from August 2019 chairman of the newly established National Sports Agency (Agence national du sport) . On April 2, 2020, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe appointed him in charge of the government for the gradual lifting of the emergency measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in France (déconfinement) . In this task he was judged largely positively. His work earned him the nickname Monsieur déconfinement .

On July 3, 2020, the politician, hitherto largely unknown even in France, was appointed Prime Minister by President Emmanuel Macron as successor to Édouard Philippe . On the day of his appointment, Castex resigned from the Les Républicains party.

Personal

Castex is married to Sandra Ribelaygue and has four daughters. He is a rugby fan. His father Claude was also the president of a rugby club, although Jean accompanied him to games in his youth. He speaks French with a southwest accent ; he and his wife, mayor of a village near the Spanish border, also speak Catalan and feel connected to the Catalan culture. In 2017 Castex published a book on the Perpignan – Villefranche-de-Conflent railway .

Awards

• Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite (2006)

Web links

Commons : Jean Castex  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jean Castex new French Prime Minister. In: Der Spiegel. Retrieved July 3, 2020 . 
2. ^ Jean Castex a quitté LR juste avant d'être nommé Premier ministre. In: L'Obs . 3rd July 2020.
3. ^ Antoine Gasquez: Mais qui est donc Jean Castex, maire de Prades, nommé Premier ministre… In: La Semaine du Roussillon. 3rd July 2020.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Curriculum vitae of Jean Castex on the Prades website, Mairie de Prades, accessed July 3, 2020.
5. ↑ Pierre Sabathié, Jean-Charles Galiacy: Jean Castex, du Gers à l'Elysee. In: Sud Ouest. November 24, 2010.
6. ^ Paul Turban: Coronavirus: qui est Jean Castex, le "Monsieur déconfinement" du gouvernement? In: RTL.fr. April 7, 2020, accessed on July 3, 2020 (French). 
7. ↑ Macron appoints new PM after Philippe resigns. BBC News, July 3, 2020, accessed July 3, 2020 . 
8. ^ ^{A b} Sylvie Corbet, Associated Press: Jean Castex named as new French prime minister. July 3, 2020, accessed on July 3, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Romain Houeix: Covid-19: qui est Jean Castex, le "Monsieur Deco finement" du gouvernement français? In: France24.com. April 24, 2020, accessed on July 3, 2020 (French). 
10. ^ Les réactions à la nomination de Jean Castex au poste de premier ministre: "Le jour d'après sera de droite comme le jour d'avant. » In: Le Monde. 3rd July 2020.
11. ↑ Michaela Wiegel: Jean Castex: The man for Macron's "new way" out of the crisis. In: FAZ.net. July 3, 2020, accessed July 3, 2020 . 
12. ^ Nico Salvado: Le Premier ministre français, défenseur de l'identité catalane. In: Equinox magazine. July 3, 2020, accessed on July 6, 2020 (French). 
13. ↑ Elisa Braun: 5 things to know about France's new PM Jean Castex. In: Politico. July 3, 2020, accessed on July 4, 2020 .