Is Geneviève Darrieussecq like the phoenix? She was already seen beaten, or at least a good challenger in the first constituency of Landes, last June, during the legislative elections, against Marie-Laure Lafargue, candidate of the New Popular Front, and Véronique Fossey (RN). The 68-year-old outgoing MP had finally won, in extremis, with 56.78% of the votes, benefiting in the second round from the withdrawal of the NFP candidate to block the far right.
Then she had been considered for a time at the Perchoir of the National Assembly, in July. And now she is expected to be called to the government by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, in charge, what is more, of one of the most emblematic portfolios, that of health. An area that the former allergist doctor, now retired, knows well.
Local anchoring
This would be the fourth time that the Landaise has been called to Paris. She took her first steps following the election of Emmanuel Macron to the presidency of the Republic in 2017, as Secretary of State to the Minister of the Armed Forces, under the government of Édouard Philippe, in charge of Veterans and Remembrance. “It is an area that interests me a lot and fascinates me. I will bring all the energy I have in me,” she had indicated on the evening of her appointment to “Sud Ouest”.
She was promoted to Minister Delegate, with the same portfolio, in the government of Jean Castex, from 2020 to 2022, before being appointed Minister Delegate for People with Disabilities in the government of Élisabeth Borne, until the reshuffle of the summer of 2023, at the end of which she was replaced by Fadila Khattabi. Geneviève Darrieussecq then returned to her duties as a member of parliament until the dissolution of the National Assembly last June.
Geneviève Darrieussecq has strong local roots in the Landes region, having been elected mayor of Mont-de-Marsan for the first time in 2008, ending several decades of socialist rule. She was re-elected in 2014, before handing over her sash to Charles Dayot when he was first appointed to the government in 2017. The Montoise also sat on the Regional Council for several years.
