Prisca Thevenot | |
Office: | Deputy Minister for Democratic Renewal Spokeswoman of the Government |
Term Start: | 11 January 2024 |
Primeminister: | Gabriel Attal |
Predecessor: | Olivier Véran |
Office1: | Secretary of State for Youth and the National Universal Service |
Term Start1: | 20 July 2023 |
Term End1: | 11 January 2024 |
Primeminister1: | Élisabeth Borne |
Minister1: | Gabriel Attal |
Predecessor1: | Sarah El Haïry |
Office2: | Member of the National Assembly for Hauts-de-Seine's 8th constituency |
Term Start2: | 22 June 2022 |
Term End2: | 20 August 2023 |
Predecessor2: | Jacques Maire |
Successor2: | Virginie Lanlo |
Office3: | Member of the Regional Council of Île-de-France |
President3: | Valérie Pécresse |
Term Start3: | 2 July 2021 |
Birth Date: | 1 March 1985 |
Birth Place: | Strasbourg, France |
Party: | Renaissance |
Alma Mater: | Emlyon Business School |
Children: | 2 |
Birth Name: | Prisca Balasubramaniam |
Prisca Thevenot (née Balasubramaniam; born 1 March 1985) is a French politician of Renaissance who has been the deputy minister for democratic renewal and spokeswoman of the Government in the Attal government since January 2024.[1]
Thevenot previously served as spokesperson for the party, then named La République en marche, from November 2020. She was elected deputy for Hauts-de-Seine's 8th constituency in the 2022 legislative election. She first joined the government in July 2023 as secretary of state for youth and the National Universal Service.[2]
Thevenot was born in Strasbourg to Mauritian parents who settled in France at the end of the 1970s to pursue university studies. In 1987, the family moved to the Paris region.
She completed a French: [[classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles]] at Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, and continued her studies at the EM Lyon Business School, from which she graduated in 2009.[3]
In the 2017 legislative election, Prisca Thevenot contested Seine-Saint-Denis's 4th constituency, but was defeated by incumbent communist member Marie-George Buffet.[4]
In November 2020, Thevenot was appointed spokeswoman for Emmanuel Macron’s party, La République en marche (LaREM), jointly with Maud Bregeon.[5]
In the June 2021 regional election, she was elected to the Regional Council of Île-de-France for Seine-Saint-Denis, on the list led by Laurent Saint-Martin.[6]
In the 2022 legislative election, Thevenot ran in Hauts-de-Seine's 8th constituency for LaREM’s Together coalition. She won the most votes in the first round, and was elected deputy in the second round with 65,75% of the votes cast, against Annie Larroque Comoy (LFI - NUPES).[7] [8] She became a member of the Social Affairs Committee in the National Assembly.[9]
In July 2023, Thevenot was appointed secretary of state for youth and the National Universal Service in the Borne government, a junior position jointly under the minister of the armed forces and the minister of national education and youth.
In the Attal government formed in January 2024, she became deputy minister for democratic renewal and spokeswoman of the Government.[10]
In April 2024, eight members of her team resigned. Six of them spoke to the newspaper Le Monde to complain of repeated moral harassment and humiliation.[11]
On 3 July 2024, while Thevenot and a supporter were putting up campaign posters for the 2024 French legislative election in Meudon, they were attacked by a gang of youths.[12] The attack was premeditated.[13] Several suspects were arrested.[14] Thevenot’s deputy and a supporter were hospitalized, the latter with a broken jaw.[15]
Thevenot is married and has two children.[16] [17]