| François Patriat | |
| Office1: | Senator for Côte-d'Or |
| Term Start1: | 1 October 2008 |
| Office2: | President of the Regional Council of Burgundy |
| Term Start2: | 2 April 2004 |
| Term End2: | 31 December 2015 |
| Predecessor2: | Jean-Pierre Soisson |
| Office3: | Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries |
| Term Start3: | 25 February 2002 |
| Term End3: | 6 May 2002 |
| Primeminister3: | Lionel Jospin |
| Predecessor3: | Jean Glavany |
| Successor3: | Hervé Gaymard |
| Office6: | Secretary of State for Small and medium-sized businesses, Trade and Crafts |
| Term Start6: | 18 October 2000 |
| Term End6: | 25 February 2002 |
| Primeminister6: | Lionel Jospin |
| Predecessor6: | Marylise Lebranchu |
| Successor6: | Christian Pierret |
| Office7: | Mayor of Chailly-sur-Armançon |
| Term Start7: | 17 March 1989 |
| Term End7: | 11 March 2001 |
| Successor7: | André Loizon |
| Office8: | Member of the National Assembly for Côte-d'Or |
| Term Start8: | 12 June 1997 |
| Term End8: | 18 November 2000 |
| Predecessor8: | Alain Suguenot |
| Successor8: | Jean-Claude Robert |
| Constituency8: | 5th |
| Term Start9: | 2 July 1981 |
| Term End9: | 1 April 1993 |
| Predecessor9: | Jean-Philippe Lecat |
| Successor9: | Alain Suguenot |
| Constituency9: | 3rd (1981–1986) At-large (1986–1988) 5th (1988–1993) |
| Birth Date: | 21 March 1943 |
| Birth Place: | Semur-en-Auxois, France |
| Nationality: | French |
| Office: | President of the Rally of Democrats, Progressive and Independent group in the Senate |
| Term Start: | 27 June 2017 |
| Predecessor: | Position established |
François Patriat (in French pronounced as /fʁɑ̃swa patʁija/; born 21 March 1943) is a French politician of Renaissance (RE, formerly LREM) who has been serving as president of the party's group in the Senate since 2017. He has represented the Côte-d'Or department in the Senate since 2008. Patriat also served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries in 2002 and President of the Regional Council of Burgundy from 2004 until 2015. He was a member of the Socialist Party before joining La République En Marche! in 2017.
Born in Semur-en-Auxois, Côte-d'Or, Patriat graduated from École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort (ENVA) in 1968.
Patriat joined the Socialist Party (PS) in 1974 and was elected to the General Council of Côte-d'Or for the canton of Pouilly-en-Auxois in 1976, a position he retained until 2008. In 1981, he was elected to the National Assembly. In 1989, Patriat became Mayor of Chailly-sur-Armançon, an office he held until 2001.
In 2000, Patriat was appointed Secretary of State in charge of small and medium-sized businesses, trade and crafts at the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry under minister Laurent Fabius in the government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. In 2002, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. He left office when Jean-Pierre Raffarin became Prime Minister.
In the 2004 regional elections, Patriat led a list that defeated the list conducted by incumbent Regional Council President Jean-Pierre Soisson. Reelected in 2010, he left the position in 2015, before the region was merged with Franche-Comté.
Ahead of the 2012 French presidential election, Patriat publicly endorsed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the Socialist Party's candidate.[1]
Patriat was elected to the Senate in 2008. Reelected in 2014, he joined La République En Marche! (REM) in 2017. After supporting Emmanuel Macron's successful candidacy for the presidency of the French Republic in the 2017 presidential election and rallying enough of his fellow senators to form a group affiliated with REM in the Senate,[2] he became the new group's president.[3] [4]
Since November 2017, Patriat has been part of LREM's executive board under the leadership of the party's successive chairmen Christophe Castaner and Stanislas Guerini.[5]