He couldn't help but smile during the transfer of power on Tuesday, December 24. Manuel Valls was appointed Minister of Overseas in the government of François Bayrou on Monday. A nice Christmas present for the man who has tirelessly tried to return to power since his failure in the presidential election in 2017. Franceinfo looks back on the last turbulent years and the unexpected return of the 62-year-old Franco-Spaniard, who will have to manage the crisis at Mayotte, devastated by Cyclone Chido in mid-December.
Two years at Matignon then a total failure in the presidential election
Manuel Valls joins Jean-Marc Ayrault's government as Minister of the Interior after François Hollande's victory in the presidential election. Having become essential, compared to Nicolas Sarkozy for his media presence and his status as “France's first cop”, he was appointed to Matignon in the spring of 2014. Prime minister for more than two years, he resigned, after François Hollande announced that he gave up running for a new mandate. Although he is determined to become President of the Republic, Manuel Valls nevertheless experiences a nightmarish campaign during the left-wing primary. Floured in Strasbourg, slapped in Lamballe (Côtes-d'Armor), he was finally largely beaten by Benoît Hamon. Rather than sponsoring the winner, the loser ultimately decides to support his former Minister of the Economy: Emmanuel Macron. Enough to alienate a large part of his supporters and earn him lasting accusations of treachery.
A departure from the PS to sit in the Assembly with the Macronists in 2017
After the presidential election, Manuel Valls gets back in the saddle and is running to be re-elected as a deputy in Essonne. With his support for Emmanuel Macron, he hopes to obtain the nomination of La République en Marche. But the former Prime Minister, who has already served three parliamentary mandates, does not meet the criteria set by LREM. The party rejects his request, but does not field any candidate in his constituency. The fervent defender of “security, secularism, living together” was re-elected by a very narrow margin. The announcement of the results turns into a pitched battle. His opponent in the second round, Farida Amrani, candidate for La France insoumise, contests this victory, requests a recount of the votes, and files an appeal to try to have the vote invalidated. In vain.
Around ten days after the election, he announced that he was joining the LREM group in the Assembly, as a related deputy. The divorce with the PS is complete, both in form and in substance. Manuel Valls, supporter of forfeiture of nationality and the highly contested Labor law, theoretician of “irreconcilable lefts”preferring a rapprochement of “progressives” left and right, leaves a bitter memory for the PS.
A new resignation in 2018 to run, unsuccessfully, for mayor of Barcelona
The other betrayal of Manuel Valls, according to his opponents, is that towards his voters in Essonne. While they elected him by a hair in the legislative elections, he left the National Assembly in 2018 to try to win the mayoralty of Barcelona. Born in the Catalan capital in 1962, this Barça fan grew up in Paris and was naturalized French at age 20, losing his Spanish nationality. But the man who has spent his entire political career in France intends to continue it in Spain. After obtaining his Spanish passport, he declared on France 2 to leave “without any bitterness and without any regret”.
In May 2019, his list came in fourth position in the Barcelona municipal elections. Failing to be mayor, Manuel Valls was elected municipal councilor of the Catalan city. “My candidacy was a difficult challenge, and I knew it from the beginning. But now my commitment to Barcelona continues”he assures after his defeat. Furthermore, justice is interested in his electoral campaign. Sentenced at the end of 2022 for illicit financing, Manuel Valls is forced to pay a fine of 277,000 euros.
A (failed) return to France to compete in the 2022 legislative elections
After three years as Barcelona city councilor, Manuel Valls is leaving office once again and sending signals of a possible return to politics in France. This earned him a parody song by a Catalan television channel.
“Now I know that I am predominantly French: in my values, in my way of thinking and doing politics”explains Manuel Valls, cited by The Newspaperto justify his return to the other side of the Pyrenees. Before re-engaging in French politics, he took a detour through the media. In September 2021, he became a political columnist on BFMTV and RMC.
The following year, he set out and ran for a new term as deputy for the fifth constituency of French people living abroad. Why not Essonne? That “didn't make sense. I had passed on”he then explains to AFP. Is this one vote too many? Manuel Valls is eliminated in the first round. He does not fail to once again attract the wrath of the left by calling for a barrier in the second round against the candidate of the left alliance, Nupes.
A return to government as Minister of State
With each reshuffle, a possible appointment of Manuel Valls is mentioned in a humorous tone by many Internet users on social networks. However, at the end of 2024, Manuel Valls is indeed returning to national political life, thanks to the political crisis that the country has been experiencing since the European elections and the dissolution of the National Assembly. “Manuel Valls is a bit of a kamikaze personality, I like daring personalities”commented on BFMTV François Bayrou Monday evening, expressing his “estimated” for a minister who will be responsible for“one of the heaviest questions”the situation overseas.
Invited himself to look back on his career on France inter, Tuesday morning, Manuel Valls describes himself as an amateur of “challenges” and of “risk taking”. “Life is about successes and above all failures. That’s the beauty of life”philosophized the one who considers that he does not represent “neither the left wing nor the right wing” within the government.
A few hours later, looking solemn on his arrival at the podium of the Hôtel de Montmorin, he revealed a happy face during the speech of his predecessor, François-Noël Buffet. “Overseas is a major ministry of the State. This is why the Prime Minister wanted the Ministry of Overseas to be a ministry of State, incarnated by a former Prime Minister”he said.
His appointment is appreciated differently by the main stakeholders. For Mansour Kamardine, former deputy for Mayotte and LR vice-president in charge of Overseas Territories, she “is similar for the Mahorais to a Chido 2 which falls on Mayotte”. More nuanced, Victorin Lurel, senator from Guadeloupe, hopes that Manuel Valls “will be able to find the paths of appeasement in New Caledonia, those of increased assistance and lasting reconstruction in Mayotte and the strength to impose, finally, an ambitious road map for all the territories of the Outre -sea”.
Related News :