| Birth Date: | 11 September 1965 |
| Birth Place: | Valenciennes, France |
| Party: | Radical Movement (2017–2021) Horizons (since 2021) |
| Occupation: | Politician |
| Office: | Member of Parliament |
| Term Start: | June 30, 2014 |
| Term End: | June 20, 2017 |
| Predecessor: | Jean-Louis Borloo |
| Successor: | Béatrice Descamps |
Laurent Degallaix (born September 11, 1965, in Valenciennes, Nord, France) is a French politician. A member of the Radical Party, then the Radical Movement and finally the Horizons movement, he has been mayor of Valenciennes since 2012 and a member of parliament from 2014 to 2017.
On June 28, 2012, he was elected mayor of Valenciennes by the municipal council, following the resignation of Dominique Riquet.[1]
In the 2014 municipal elections, Laurent Degallaix was re-elected in the second round with 50.32% of votes cast, and a turnout of 53.40%.[2] Vice-president of the Valenciennes Métropole agglomeration community in charge of finance since 2008, he was elected president in 2016.[3]
On November 8, 2018, he was taken into police custody in connection with the sale of the municipal office Val' Hainaut Habitat.[4] In 2019, he accepts the Lille public prosecutor's proposal to proceed with a plea bargaining procedure (CRPC) in the V2H case. He is fined 25,000 euros.[5]
In June 2019, La République en marche announced its support for Laurent Degallaix for the 2020 municipal elections in Valenciennes.[6] [7] [8] He specifies that he does not join the party, intending to keep his "autonomy".[9] He is also the first mayor in the Nord department to be backed by LREM for these elections.[10] The list he led won in the first round with 51% of the vote.[11] He was re-elected mayor when the municipal council was installed on May 26, 2020.[12]
Following the resignation of Jean-Louis Borloo, he was elected deputy in the 21st constituency of Nord in the legislative by-election held on June 22 and 29, 2014. After receiving 47% of the vote in the first round, he was elected with 72.14% of the vote in the second round and resigned from the regional council.[13]
On September 6, 2014, he announced his support for Hervé Morin in the election for UDI president.[14]
In December 2014, he mobilized alongside teachers at the Jean-Moulin secondary school in Wallers to safeguard the resources the school had thanks to the priority education scheme.[15]
A supporter of Alain Juppé in the 2016 open Right and Center primary, he rallied to Emmanuel Macron's candidacy for the 2017 presidential election,[16] but did not provide his sponsorship.[17] Affected by the law on the accumulation of mandates, he does not seek re-election in the following legislative elections but becomes the deputy substitute for Béatrice Descamps.[18]
Laurent Degallaix ran in the 2021 departmental elections in the canton of Valenciennes as a pair with senator Valérie Létard, against outgoing The Republicans (LR) councillors Yves Dusart and Geneviève Mannarino, whom he described as "interims ".[19] The pair came out on top in the first round with almost 37% of the vote,[20] then won the second round with 52.2%.[21]
The same year, after the de facto demise of the MR, he joined the Horizons movement created by former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. He became its referent for the Hauts-de-France region.[22]