Manuel Valls, surprise return to overseas countries in crisis
Almost absent from French political life for six years, Manuel Valls, after the failure of his establishment in Spain, made a surprise return to the overseas ministry, where the former prime minister will have to manage the crises affecting Mayotte, the Antilles or New Caledonia.
Faced with the 2015 attacks as Prime Minister, Mr. Valls, who will have the title of Minister of State, will be confronted with the devastating consequences of Hurricane Chido in Mayotte, the aftermath of the serious riots which broke out in May in New Caledonia and the question of the cost of living in the West Indian departments.
Mr. Valls, reviled by part of the left for his positions considered too right-wing, is thus returning fully to national political life.
After having been Minister of the Interior, from 2012 to 2014, then Prime Minister from 2014 to 2016, under François Hollande, the 62-year-old Catalan had not passed the stage of the primary of the Socialist Party (PS) in sight of the 2017 presidential election. Rather than sponsoring the winner, Benoît Hamon, the former PS heavyweight decided to support Emmanuel Macron, which had alienated a large part of his supporters and had earned him accusations of treachery.
Another betrayal, according to his detractors, that of the voters of Essonne, in Ile-de-France, who narrowly elected him as a deputy in June 2017, only to see him finally leave the National Assembly in 2018 in order to try – without success – to conquer the town hall of Barcelona. Born in the Catalan capital on August 13, 1962, he was naturalized French at the age of 20, losing his Spanish nationality.
After three years as Barcelona city councilor, he left office once again and sent signals of a possible return to politics in France.
In 2022, he makes this comeback attempt a reality, by seeking a mandate as deputy for the fifth constituency of French people living abroad. And not in Essonne, where he had nevertheless been elected four times, because that “didn’t make sense. I had handed over »he declared to justify himself. The fate of the polls was not more favorable to him: Manuel Valls was eliminated in the first round, but did not fail to call for a barrier, in the second round, against the candidate of the left alliance, the Nupes.
