| Bruno Retailleau | |
| Office: | Minister of the Interior |
| Primeminister: | Michel Barnier |
| Term Start: | 21 September 2024 |
| Predecessor: | Gérald Darmanin |
| Office2: | Senator for Vendée |
| Term Start2: | 1 October 2004 |
| Term End2: | 1 October 2024 |
| Office1: | President of The Republicans group in the Senate |
| Term Start1: | 7 October 2014 |
| Term End1: | 30 September 2024 |
| Predecessor1: | Jean-Claude Gaudin |
| Successor1: | Mathieu Darnaud |
| Office4: | President of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire |
| Term Start4: | 18 December 2015 |
| Term End4: | 13 September 2017 |
| Predecessor4: | Jacques Auxiette |
| Successor4: | Christelle Morançais |
| Office5: | President of the General Council of Vendée |
| Term Start5: | 30 November 2010 |
| Term End5: | 1 April 2015 |
| Predecessor5: | Philippe de Villiers |
| Successor5: | Yves Auvinet |
| Office6: | Member of the National Assembly for Vendée's 4th constituency |
| Term Start6: | 26 November 1994 |
| Term End6: | 12 June 1997 |
| Predecessor6: | Philippe de Villiers |
| Successor6: | Philippe de Villiers |
| Office7: | General councillor of Vendée for the canton of Mortagne-sur-Sèvre |
| Term Start7: | 3 October 1988 |
| Term End7: | 1 April 2015 |
| Predecessor7: | Gérard Brosset |
| Successor7: | Cécile Barreau Guillaume Jean |
| Birth Name: | Bruno Daniel Marie Paul Retailleau |
| Birth Date: | 20 November 1960 |
| Birth Place: | Cholet, France |
| Alma Mater: | University of Nantes Sciences Po |
| Children: | 3 |
Bruno Daniel Marie Paul Retailleau (pronounced as /fr/; born 20 November 1960) is a French politician who has served as Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier since 21 September 2024.
Retailleau represented the Vendée department in the National Assembly from 1994 to 1997 as Philippe de Villiers's substitute and in the Senate from 2004 to 2024. He presided over the Senate Republicans from 2014 to 2024. He also served as President of the General Council of Vendée from 2010 to 2015 and President of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire from 2015 until 2017.
Following his appointment to the government, Retailleau has been called its most influential figure,[1] [2] stating to have accepted the position to "re-establish order" in France.[3]
Bruno Retailleau was born on 20 November 1960 in Cholet, Maine-et-Loire, the son of parents who were grain merchants.[4] [5] The elder in a family of 4 children, he grew up in Saint-Malô-du-Bois, a village in the bocage of Vendée, 7 kilometres from where the Puy du Fou historical theme park, launched by Philippe de Villiers, would emerge.[6] [7]
Retailleau graduated from Sciences Po in 1985, after a master's degree in economics at the University of Nantes.[5]
In 1985, he became deputy general manager of a local radio station, Alouette, then, from 1987 to 1994, general manager of the Sciencescom communication school, later integrated into Audencia Business School.[8] When the Grand Parc du Puy du Fou corporation was created, which manages the theme park associated with the "Cinéscénie", he became its first chairman of the board, as a close associate of De Villiers.[9]
A member of the Movement for France (MPF), founded by De Villiers, until 2010, Retailleau became the Vendée general councillor for the canton of Mortagne-sur-Sèvre in 1988, a position he retained until 2015.
Retailleau became the deputy in the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Vendée in 1994 upon the election of De Villiers as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), a position he did not seek election to in the 1997 election, as De Villiers was running for his old seat.[10]
Instead, Retailleau joined the Senate in 2004, where from 2014 he presided over the Union for a Popular Movement group (renamed The Republicans group in 2015), after joining the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) of President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012.
In 2010, he succeeded De Villiers as President of the General Council of Vendée.
In the 2015 regional election, Retailleau led a list in Pays de la Loire with the support of The Republicans (LR) and the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), which received over 42% of the second-round vote. He supported the Aéroport du Grand Ouest project.[11] [12] On 18 December 2015, he became President of the Regional Council of Pays de la Loire, an office he resigned from in 2017 to focus on his activities in the Senate.
Earlier, Retailleau had held one of the regional council's vice presidencies from 1998 to 2004 under François Fillon (until 2002) and Jean-Luc Harousseau.
In The Republicans' 2016 primary, Retailleau endorsed former Prime Minister François Fillon as the party's candidate for President of France in the 2017 election.[13] He subsequently joined Fillon's team as campaign coordinator.[14]
Ahead of The Republicans' 2019 leadership election, Retailleau announced that despite speculation he would not run for the party presidency, calling Christian Jacob the "consensual" candidate.[15]
Ahead of the 2022 presidential election, he announced he would also not run for the party nomination.[16] At The Republicans' primary in December 2021, he was part of the 11-member committee that oversaw the party's selection of its candidate in the upcoming election.[17]
On 2 September 2022, Retailleau announced his candidacy for the presidency of The Republicans.[18] In an internal leadership vote, he was eventually defeated by Éric Ciotti on 11 December 2022.[19] Despite working closely with Ciotti following the latter's election as party president, Retailleau sided against him amid the 2024 The Republicans alliance crisis.[20]
On 21 September 2024, Retailleau was appointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier, succeeding Gérald Darmanin.[21] [22] His appointment marked a shift to the right.[23] He called for "less immigration, more security";[24] shortly after taking office, he demanded prefects order a "complete mobilisation" to "speed up the pace of deportations" of illegal migrants.[25]
Retailleau states he belongs to a right-wing movement that does not compromise on its values.[26] A supporter of a clear opposition to President Emmanuel Macron's centrist politics, he refused any government agreement with Macron's party, Renaissance, in 2022.[27] In 2024, he joined the Barnier government, a centre-right coalition government which includes Renaissance.[28]
Regularly described as a liberal-conservative, Retailleau advocates major reforms of work, the state and the French social model, and calls for "a policy of civilisation" against wokeism.[29] [30] [27] [31] A proponent of a firmer response to security issues, Retailleau defends a "penal revolution" including measures such as the introduction of short prison sentences for the first acts of delinquency, the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility to 16 years and the suspension of social and family benefits to parents who do not assume their educational responsibilities.[32] Attached to national sovereignty, he regularly denounces the influence of jurisprudence such as that of the ECHR, was opposed to the Treaty of Lisbon and refuses any federalist push within the European Union.[33]
In 2019, advocating for "an intellectual refoundation" of the right, Retailleau aimed to give back an ideological corpus to his political family and called on the right to seize new issues such as environmentalism, to which he devoted a book.[34] [35]
In March 2024, Retailleau voted against an amendment that enshrined abortion in the Constitution.[36]
Retailleau is a staunch opponent of immigration.[37] He has called for constitutional changes so a referendum can be held on the matter.[38] During one of the debates on an immigration bill in July 2024, which was introduced by his predecessor Gérald Darmanin, he stated "immigration is not an opportunity for France."[39] In 2023, following the Nahel Merzouk riots, Retailleau denounced a "regression towards the ethnic origins" of the rioters, adding that although they were legally French, they were in his opinion not culturally so. His statements received substantial criticism.[40] He later stated that France had been "dispossessed of the control" of its borders, notably through European jurisprudence.[41]
Upon becoming Minister of the Interior in 2024, he ordered the deportation of illegal immigrants from the overseas island of Mayotte to the DRC.[42] [43] [44] In an interview with French daily newspaper Le Parisien on 10 October, Retailleau stated his intention in tightening the amount of illegal immigrants that can see their legal situation change to be admitted into French society.[45] [46]
In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the 47th G7 summit in 2021, Retailleau joined some 70 legislators from Europe, the US and Japan in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.[47]
Following the 2023 Nigerien coup d'état, Retailleau joined forces with fellow Senators Christian Cambon and Roger Karoutchi on an open letter to President Macron in Le Figaro, critizicing France's Africa policy and arguing that the failure of Operation Barkhane was in great part the reason why France and its economic, political and military presence have been rejected in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and the Central African Republic; the letter was signed by 91 other Senators.[48] [49]
In 2019, Retailleau wrote to the Israeli ambassador to France to demand that Christians who live in Gaza be allowed to travel to Bethlehem and Jerusalem for Christmas.[50]
Following the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel and the ensuing Israel–Hamas war, Retailleau expressed strong support for Israel,[51] which has positioned him as an ally to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, echoing sentiments from France's right-leaning political factions.
In October 2024, Bruno Retailleau asked to renegotiate the 1968 agreement with Algeria that governs immigration between Algeria and France.[52] He then said he was in favor of its repeal in November 2024, in view of the deterioration of relations between Algeria and France.[53]
Married to a medical doctor, Retailleau is the father of three children.[54]
Passionate about horseback riding, Retailleau was spotted by Philippe de Villiers while participating as a volunteer rider in the "Cinéscénie" show at the Puy du Fou.[55] [56] The creator of the show, who quickly made him his second-in-command, later entrusted him with the staging of the Cinescénie for nearly 25 years.[57] [58]