Élisabeth Borne

Élisabeth Borne (French pronunciation: [elizabɛt bɔʁn]; born 18 April 1961) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since May 2022. She is a member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance. Borne is the second woman to hold the position of Prime Minister after Édith Cresson, who served from 1991 to 1992.[1]

Élisabeth Borne
Official portrait, 2022
Prime Minister of France
Assumed office
16 May 2022
PresidentEmmanuel Macron
Preceded byJean Castex
Minister of Labour, Employment and Integration
In office
6 July 2020 – 16 May 2022
Prime MinisterJean Castex
Preceded byMuriel Pénicaud
Succeeded byOlivier Dussopt
Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition
In office
16 July 2019 – 6 July 2020
Prime MinisterÉdouard Philippe
Preceded byFrançois de Rugy
Succeeded byBarbara Pompili
Minister of Transport
In office
17 May 2017 – 16 July 2019
Prime MinisterÉdouard Philippe
Preceded byAlain Vidalies
Succeeded byJean-Baptiste Djebbari
Member of the National Assembly
for Calvados's 6th constituency
In office
22 June 2022 – 22 July 2022
Preceded byAlain Tourret
Succeeded byFreddy Sertin
Personal details
Born (1961-04-18) 18 April 1961
Paris, France
Political partyRenaissance (since 2017)
Other political
affiliations		Territories of Progress (2020–2022)
Spouse
Olivier Allix
​
​
(m. 1989; div. 2008)​
Children1
ResidenceHôtel Matignon (official)
EducationÉcole Polytechnique
École des ponts ParisTech
Collège des Ingénieurs

A civil engineer, government official and manager of state enterprises in the transport and construction sectors, Borne previously served as minister of transport (2017–2019) and minister of ecology (2019–2020). She was then minister of labour, employment and integration in the Castex government from 2020 to 2022.[2] On 16 May 2022, President Macron appointed her as the next prime minister after Castex's resignation, as it is the tradition following the presidential elections in France.[3]

Borne led the centrist Ensemble coalition into the 2022 legislative election which resulted in a hung parliament: enjoying a 115-seat majority before the election, the ruling coalition was reduced to 251 seats (from 346), still emerging as the largest bloc in Parliament but 38 short of a majority. Unable to broker any deal with opposition parties to form a stable majority administration, Borne officially formed a minority government in July 2022.

Notably, as prime minister, she oversaw the contentious passage of a pension system reform raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, the repealing of most of the Covid-era health restrictions and the passage of a multi-year military planning law, paving way for a 40%-increase in military spending between 2024 and 2030. She also led the government's financial response to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

In July 2023, holding onto her position as PM amid media reports of a possible dismissal, Borne reshuffled her cabinet for the second time since the beginning of her Premiership.

Early life and education

Elisabeth Borne was born in Paris.[4] Her French-born mother, Marguerite Lecèsne, was a pharmacist. Her father, Joseph Bornstein, son of Zelig Bornstein from Łuków (formerly Congress Poland),[5] was born in Belgium.[6] He fled to France at the outset of the Second World War and was active in the French Resistance.[7] Bornstein was one of four brothers. In 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo in Grenoble, where he was part of the French resistance and deported to Auschwitz German concentration camp. His father and younger brother were sent to the German gas chambers. Joseph and his older brother were kept alive to work in a synthetic fuel factory.

In April 1945, they met Borne's mother, Marguerite Lescène, at the platform of Paris's Orsay train station where she was helping deportees. She took the brothers to her hometown in Normandy where her family helped them rebuild their lives. Joseph Bornstein later published descriptions of the horrors he had witnessed in the Holocaust.[8] He was naturalised in 1950 and changed the family name to "Borne".[5][7] Borne's mother ran a pharmaceutical laboratory after the war.[9] Her father ran a rubber products factory but suffered from trauma and severe depression. He committed suicide when she was 11 years old. After his death, Borne was awarded "Ward of the Nation" education benefits which the state granted to minors who were orphaned as a result of the war or had a parent who had died in exceptional circumstances.[8]

Borne attended high school at Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris. Later, she entered the École Polytechnique (class of 1981). In 1986, she obtained her Diplôme d'Ingénieur in civil engineering from the École nationale des ponts et chaussées (National School of Road and Bridge Engineering) and one year later a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Collège des Ingénieurs.

Career in the public sector

Borne joined the civil service as a government official at the French planning and works ministry (ministère de l'Equipement) in 1987. In the early 1990s, she was an advisor in the ministry of education under Lionel Jospin and Jack Lang (both members of the Socialist Party). From 1993 to 1996 she worked as a technical director for the public housing company Sonacotra. In 1997, prime minister Jospin appointed her as his advisor for urban planning, housing and transport.[10]

In 2002, Borne became a strategy director and member of the executive committee at the state-owned railway company SNCF, before joining the public works construction company Eiffage as concessions manager in 2007. She worked as director of urban planning for the City of Paris under mayor Bertrand Delanoë from 2008 until 2013.[11]

In 2013 Borne was appointed Prefect of the department Vienne and the region of Poitou-Charentes, the first woman to occupy that position.[12] At that time, Socialist politician Ségolène Royal was president of the regional council of Poitou-Charentes. When Royal became Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy in 2014, she appointed Borne as her chief of staff (directrice de cabinet).[13] Borne subsequently was the President and CEO of RATP Group, a state-owned enterprise which operates public transport in Greater Paris, from 2015 to 2017.[11]

Political career

For a long time Borne was close to the Socialist Party (PS), but without formally joining the party. After Emmanuel Macron's victory in the 2017 French presidential election, she joined La République En Marche! (LREM).[14]

Borne served as minister-delegate of transport in the first and second Philippe governments from May 2017 to July 2019.[15][16][17] During her time in office, she held out against weeks of strikes and demonstrations in 2017 to end a generous pension and benefits system for SNCF railway workers.[18] After the resignation of ecology minister François de Rugy in 2019, Borne was promoted to head the ministry of the ecological and inclusive transition. In that capacity, she led efforts to pass a long-term energy planning bill aimed at increasing security of supply and a clean mobility bill committing the country to reaching carbon neutrality in the transport sector by 2050.[19]

In 2019, Borne opposed France's ratification of the European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement.[20]

Since 2020 Borne has additionally been a member of Territories of Progress, a centre-left party allied with LREM.[21] In September 2022, both parties merged into the Renaissance party.

Minister of Labour, 2020–2022

In July 2020, Borne was appointed minister of labour, employment and economic inclusion in the government of prime minister Jean Castex, succeeding Muriel Pénicaud.[22] In that capacity, she oversaw negotiations with unions that resulted in a cut to unemployment benefits for some job seekers.[18] During her time in office, France's unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 15 years and youth unemployment to its lowest level in 40 years.[23][24][25]

Prime Minister, 2022–present

On 16 May 2022, Borne was appointed Prime Minister of France, succeeding Castex three weeks after the re-election of Macron for a second term as President of the French Republic. After Édith Cresson in 1991–1992, she is the second woman only to hold the position. She is also the second of Macron's prime ministers to be a member of his centrist party, after Castex.[26]

Borne was a candidate for Renaissance (formerly known as La République En Marche!) in the 2022 French legislative election in Calvados's 6th constituency in the Normandy region in northwestern France.[27] While remaining a candidate, under the dual mandate (cumuls des mandats) law she was not allowed to take up the position after she won the election, and was replaced by her designated alternate. She called on voters to support Macron's coalition, Ensemble Citoyens, saying it is the only group "capable of getting [a parliamentary] majority".[28] After the first round, in relation to contests between left-wing and far-right candidates, she said: "Our position is no voice for the RN." At the same time, she expressed support only for left-wing candidates who in her view respect republican values.[29][30] She was elected to Parliament in the second round.[31] Borne offered her resignation as prime minister after the results of the second round, but was rejected by Macron,[32] who instead tasked her to form a new cabinet.[33]

Following a cabinet reshuffle prompted by the 2022 legislative elections that resulted in a hung parliament,[34] Borne officially formed a minority government and easily survived a motion of no confidence triggered by MPs of the New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES), a broad alliance of left-wing opponents, in response to the Government's refusal to call for a vote of confidence.[35][36] In March 2023, Borne survived by nine votes another motion of no confidence brought against her in response to President Macron's passage of a law that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote of the National Assembly.[37]

On 12 April 2023, Borne condemned LDH for speaking out against police brutality, particularly during a protest in the village of Sainte-Soline in western France.[38]

In May 2023, reports began circulating that Borne's government had withdrawn support for France hosting the 2025 Rugby League World Cup with her government demanding protection from financial loses if the tournament did not run at a profit. With the French organising committee unable to meet this new demand, France officially withdrew as tournament hosts on 15 May citing lack of governmental financial support as the reason.[39][40][41][42][43]

In July 2023, the government reshuffle was described as "strange".[44]

Personal life

Borne married Olivier Allix, a lecturer and also an engineer, on 30 June 1989 with whom she later had a son, Nathan. The couple has since divorced.[45][46]

Borne was admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in March 2021 and was administered oxygen.[26]

In breaking with precedent by other French prime ministers who refrained from suing journalists, Borne asked a court in May 2023 to force the L'Archipel publishing house to cut about 200 lines in future editions of "La Secrète" (The Secretive One), a biography written by the French journalist Bérengère Bonte and mentioning intimate details of her private life.[47]

Honours
Ribbon bar Honour Date and comment
Chevalier of the Legion of Honour 12 July 2013[48]
Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit 22 December 2022[49]
Officer of the National Order of Merit 14 November 2016[50]
Chevalier of the National Order of Merit 6 November 2008[51]
Commandeur of the National Order of Maritime Merit 2019[52]

See also

References
  1. "Élisabeth Borne becomes France's first female prime minister in 30 years". The Guardian. 16 May 2022. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  2. "Gouvernement Castex en direct : Darmanin nommé ministre de l'intérieur, Dupond-Moretti garde des sceaux et Bachelot à la culture". Le Monde.fr (in French). 6 July 2020. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  3. "Élisabeth Borne va être nommée Première ministre". INFO BFMTV. 16 May 2022. Archived from the original on 16 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  4. Sage, Adam (17 May 2022). "Elisabeth Borne: France's first female prime minister for 30 years seeks unity". The Times. Archived from the original on 16 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  5. Beaucarnot, Jean-Louis (2022). "Élisabeth Borne: La Rhinaquintine et le bon beurre normand". Le Tout-Politique 2022. L'archipel.
  6. Wattenberg, Frida (5 October 2010). "Joseph Bornstein, dit Borne". Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Date de naissance: 02/05/1924 (Anvers (Belgique))
  7. Klein, Zvika (17 May 2022). "What are the Jewish roots of France's newest prime minister?". Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  8. The Harrowing Personal Story France's Prime Minister Rarely Tells
  9. Bloch, Ben (17 May 2022). "France's new prime minister is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and French Resistance hero". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  10. "Elisabeth Borne". Who's Who in France. 17 May 2022. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  11. Philippe Jacqué, Cédric Pietralunga and Isabelle Chaperon (March 24, 2015), RATP : Elisabeth Borne devrait remplacer Pierre Mongin Archived 8 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine Le Monde, April 24, 2014.
  12. "Elisabeth Borne, la nouvelle ministre de la Transition écologique, a été préfète de la région Poitou-Charente". France Bleu (in French). 17 July 2019. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  13. La préfète de Poitou-Charentes nommée directrice de cabinet de Ségolène Royal Archived 8 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine Le Monde, April 24, 2014.
  14. Dominique Albertini and Franck Bouaziz (January 8, 2018) Transports : Elisabeth Borne, lasse du volant ? Archived 29 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine Libération.
  15. "L'ancienne préfète de Poitou-Charentes Élisabeth Borne nommée ministre déléguée aux transports – 17/05/2017 – La Nouvelle République Vienne" (in French). Orig.lanouvellerepublique.fr. 13 May 2017. Archived from the original on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  16. "Elisabeth Borne passe de la RATP au ministère des Transports". Bfmbusiness.bfmtv.com. 9 December 2016. Archived from the original on 21 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  17. "Élisabeth Borne, ministre des transports, 56 ans". La Croix. 17 May 2017. Archived from the original on 22 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  18. Elizabeth Pineau and Dominique Vidalon (16 May 2022), France's Macron picks Elisabeth Borne as new prime minister Archived 17 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
  19. Louise Guillot (23 May 2022), Macron's new (not so) green team Politico Europe.
  20. Benoit Van Overstraeten (October 8, 2019), France will not sign Mercosur deal under current conditions: minister Borne Archived 16 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
  21. Jean-Rémi Baudot (20 September 2020). "Avec le mouvement "Territoires de progrès", Emmanuel Macron travaille son aile gauche". Europe 1. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  22. "Élisabeth Borne". Gouvernement.fr (in French). 20 March 2018. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  23. "Government hails 'great French victory' as unemployment falls to 13-year low". Radio France Internationale. 18 February 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  24. "Who is France's new Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne?". France 24. Agence France-Presse. 16 May 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  25. "French unemployment slips to 14-year low in first quarter of 2022". Radio France Internationale. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  26. Angelique Chrisafis (16 May 2022), Élisabeth Borne: a long-serving technocrat and 'woman of the left' Archived 18 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian.
  27. "Législatives 2022. Candidate dans le Calvados, Élisabeth Borne est nommée Première ministre". 16 May 2022. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  28. Caulcutt, Clea (12 June 2022). "French far-left firebrand puts Macron's majority on the line in parliamentary vote". Politico Europe. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  29. "Législatives 2022 en direct – Le Pen vise 100 députés RN, Mélenchon agite le spectre de la TVA sociale, Macron appelle 'au sursaut républicain' : la journée du 14 juin". Le Monde (in French). 14 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022. La majorité sortante a eu des difficultés à préciser sa position en cas de duel au deuxième tour entre la Nupes et le RN. La première ministre, Elisabeth Borne, a fini par déclarer lundi : 'Notre position, c'est aucune voix pour le RN.' 'Et pour la Nupes, si on a affaire à un candidat qui ne respecte pas les valeurs républicaines, qui insulte nos policiers, qui demande de ne plus soutenir l'Ukraine, qui veut sortir de l'Europe, alors nous n'allons pas voter pour lui', a poursuivi Mme Borne, qui est arrivée en tête dans sa circonscription dans le Calvados.
  30. "Elections législatives : la majorité appelle à ' ne jamais donner une voix à l'extrême droite' et soutiendra les candidats Nupes 'républicains'". Le Monde (in French). 13 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  31. "French legislative elections: PM Elisabeth Borne wins first-ever election in Normandy". Le Monde.fr. 19 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
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  38. "'Civil liberties in France are in danger,' says Human Rights League head". Le Monde.fr. 17 April 2023.
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  40. "France no longer able to host 2025 Rugby League World Cup". seriousaboutrl.com. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  41. Bower, Aaron (15 May 2023). "2025 Rugby League World Cup in doubt after France pull out of staging event". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  42. "France withdraw from hosting 2025 Rugby League World Cup over financial concerns".
  43. "Confirmed: France will not host 2025 Rugby League World Cup". 15 May 2023.
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  45. "Elisabeth Borne : qui est son ex-mari et père de son fils, Olivier Allix ?". Femme Actuelle (in French). 16 May 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  46. "Qui est le mari d'Elisabeth Borne, pressentie pour devenir Première ministre ?". Ohmymag (in French). 28 April 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  47. Michel Rose (24 May 2023), French PM sues biography publisher for violating her privacy Reuters.
  48. "Décret du 12 juillet 2013 portant promotion et nomination". Légifrance (in French). Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  49. "Lors d'une remise de décoration, Macron salue Borne, "une femme de confiance plus que de confidence"". 22 December 2022.
  50. "Décret du 14 novembre 2016 portant promotion et nomination". Légifrance (in French). Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  51. "Décret du 30 janvier 2008 portant promotion et nomination".
  52. "Ordre du Mérite Maritime" (PDF).
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