Gil Avérous was appointed by Michel Barnier to the Ministry of Sports, Youth and Community Life, succeeding Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
The mayor of Châteauroux is finally joining a government, after several failed attempts in recent years.
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Michel Barnier (finally) has a government
It’s finally the right one. Gil Avérous was appointed Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life in the new Barnier government on Saturday, September 21. While his name had been regularly mentioned since 2020, he had to wait four years before taking up a ministerial position, a little less than a year after announcing his departure from the Les Républicains party.
Aged 51, the mayor of Châteauroux, in Indre, replaces Amélie Oudéa-Castéra in a ministry driven by the success of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but which will see funding for sport drop by 11%, according to the public finance programming law for the period 2023-2027.
Disagree with LR
Born in Issoudun (Indre), Gil Avérous began his political life in 1995 by becoming a municipal councilor and then deputy mayor of Bordes. The mayor of Châteauroux since 2014 is a historic member of the right, successively a member of the RPR, the UMP and LR. But last December, the man who is also president of the association Villes de France, announced his departure from Républicains, in disagreement with the policy led by the party leader Éric Ciotti. Close to Nicolas Sarkozy, he had thus indicated “do not renew [son] membership beyond December 31.”
To justify his decision, he cited his “discontent” who has “started the day after the first round of the presidential election” from 2022 when, “in the political office, the majority choice was made to send back to back Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macronand not to call for a clear vote in the second round for Emmanuel Macron.” He was also opposed to the adoption of the motion to reject the immigration law.
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Initially opposed to marriage for all before changing his mind, Gil Avérous said he was against surrogacy and spoke out, in particular, for the legalization of cannabis. The latest feat of arms for the right-wing man: the successful organization of the shooting events at the Paris Olympic and then Paralympic Games, which took place in Châteauroux. He had then emphasized that “Sport is a unifying element in the population.”
