| Martine Aubry | |
|---|---|
| First Secretary of the Socialist Party | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 26 November 2008 |
|
| Preceded by | François Hollande |
| Succeeded by | Harlem Désir (Acting) |
| Mayor of Lille | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 25 March 2001 |
|
| Preceded by | Pierre Mauroy |
| Minister of Social Affairs | |
| In office 2 June 1997 – 18 October 2000 |
|
| Prime Minister | Lionel Jospin |
| Preceded by | Jean-Claude Gaudin |
| Succeeded by | Élisabeth Guigou |
| Minister of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training | |
| In office 15 May 1991 – 28 March 1993 |
|
| Prime Minister | Édith Cresson Pierre Bérégovoy |
| Preceded by | Jean-Pierre Soisson |
| Succeeded by | Michel Giraud |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 August 1950 Paris, France |
| Political party | Socialist Party |
| Alma mater | Pantheon-Assas Paris II University Institut des Sciences Sociales du Travail Paris Institute of Political Studies National School of Administration |
| Religion | Roman Catholic[1] |
Martine Aubry (French pronunciation: [maʁtin obʁi]; née Delors; born 8 August 1950 in Paris) is a French politician. She has been the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste, or PS) since November 2008 and Mayor of Lille (Nord) since March 2001. Her father, Jacques Delors, served as Minister of Finance under President François Mitterrand and was also President of the European Commission.
Aubry joined the PS in 1974 and was appointed Minister of Labour by Prime Minister Édith Cresson in 1991, but lost her position in 1993 after the Right won the legislative elections. However, she became Minister of Social Affairs when Lionel Jospin was appointed Prime Minister in 1997. She is mostly known for having pushed the popular 35-hour workweek law, known as the "Loi Aubry", reducing the nominal length of the normal full-time working week from 39 to 35 hours, and the law that created the Couverture maladie universelle (Universal health care coverage).
Aubry stepped down from her Cabinet post in 2001 to be elected Mayor of Lille in place of Pierre Mauroy. Aubry subsequently lost her seat in the National Assembly in the general election of 2002. In March 2008, she was reelected Mayor of Lille, with 66.55% of the votes.
In November 2008, she was elected to lead the Socialist Party, narrowly defeating Ségolène Royal; while Royal disputed the results, the Socialist Party declared on November 25, 2008 that Aubry had won the contested election. On 28 June 2011, Martine Aubry announced she will seek the Socialist nomination to run in the 2012 presidential election. She will represent an option more based on traditional Socialist policies and the welfare state than the other main candidates.
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Aubry is the daughter of French Minister of Finance (1981–1985) and European Commission President (1985–1995) Jacques Delors.
Aubry was educated at the lycée Notre-Dame-des-Oiseaux[2] and the lycée Paul-Valéry (in Paris);[3] she holds a degree in economic science from the Pantheon-Assas Paris II University,[4] a diploma from the Institut des Sciences Sociales du Travail, and one from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (or Sciences Po) in 1972.
Between 1973 and 1975, she studied at the École nationale d'administration (ÉNA, National School of Administration). She became a civil administrator at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (France) (Ministère du Travail et des Affaires sociales), during which time she was active within the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT). She became a professor at ÉNA in 1978, and was seconded to the State Council between 1980 and 1981.
Following the election of François Mitterrand to the French presidency in 1981, she successively held several posts at the Ministry of Social Affairs, in the cabinets of Jean Auroux and Pierre Bérégovoy. In 1984, she investigated French asbestos policy for the Comité Permanent Amiante (Permanent Asbestos Committee, an informal public-private working group formed to manage the health problems of workers affected by asbestos). The group's deputy director, Jean-Luc Pasquier, testified before the courts to account for the group's members' actions.
After the defeat of the socialists in the French legislative election of 1986, she was named Master of Requests at the State Council. From 1989 to 1991, she took up the post of Assistant Director at Pechiney, working with Jean Gandois. She was involved with the opening of a plant at Dunkerque and the closure of the aluminium works at Noguères.[5]
Aubry was named Minister of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training by Édith Cresson, and carried on in this capacity in the Bérégovoy ministry until March 1993. According to Jean-Luc Pasquier,[6] she supported the controlled use of asbestos whilst all other members of the EEC supported an outright ban, thus effectively vetoing a European decree against asbestos.[7] France did not ban asbestos until 1997.[8] In January 2010, a public health judge charged with investigating former government measures on asbestos had Aubry interrogated by gendarmes in Lille.[9]
When the right came into power at the French legislative election in 1986, she started the Fondation Agir Contre l'Exclusion (FACE, the Act Against Exclusion Foundation). In 1995, Pierre Mauroy named her as the first deputy to the Mayor of Lille, thus giving her a foothold in the department of Nord.
Lionel Jospin, who became the socialist candidate as French President in 1995, made her his campaign spokesman during the presidential campaign. Upon his defeat, Jospin became first secretary of the Socialist Party, and offered her the number two spot, which Aubry refused.
Although she had good relations with part of the establishment, especially with her former Pechiney boss, Jean Gandois, and the Parti communiste francais, she did not get on well with the unions, in particular with Nicole Notat, the former General Secretary of the CFDT
She has been described as hard and demanding. She counters, "Je dis les choses en face, je ne suis pas faux-cul. Mais je crois être bien moins dure que beaucoup de gens en politique. Je suis même peut-être trop sensible. (I'm up-front, and I'm not a hypocrite. But I think I'm much less hard than many politicians. I may even be too sensitive.)[5]"
Elected as member of the National Assembly, she became minister of Employment and Solidarity and most important minister after the prime minister in 1997. The same year, to fight unemployment, she created a new employment contract for young people (Emplois-jeunes) with a financial help from the government. In 1998, a fist law establishing the 35-hour workweek was adopted. in 1999, the Couverture maladie universelle (CMU), a program that reimburses medical expenses through Social security for everyone, was voted through. Furthermore, for people on low incomes, the CMU also offers complementary health cover of 100%, which is added to standard Social Security payments; this avoids the necessity for additional private (top-up) insurance.
On June 28, 2011, Aubry said in a televised address from the former train station of Lille-Saint-Sauveur : "I have decided to propose my candidacy to the presidential election".[10]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Jean-Pierre Soisson |
Minister of Labour, Employment and Vocational Training 1991–1993 |
Succeeded by Michel Giraud |
| Preceded by Jean-Claude Gaudin |
Minister of Social Affairs 1997–2000 |
Succeeded by Élisabeth Guigou |
| Preceded by Pierre Mauroy |
Mayor of Lille 2001–present |
Incumbent |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by François Hollande |
First Secretary of the Socialist Party 2008–present |
Incumbent |