After graduating from the Ecole Normale Supérieure, I studied history and wrote a master’s thesis on Le Flambeau des Mille et une nuits et l’Orient des Lumières, 1704-1798. Following this, I obtained a DEA diploma in public law, then entered the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA). In 2001, on completing my studies at ENA, I entered the French Council of State. After becoming Jacques Barrot’s deputy in 2002, I was elected member for Haute-Loire in 2004, thus becoming the youngest French MP. At the French National Assembly, I joined the Social Affairs Committee.
In December 2006, at the request of François Fillon, then Minister of the French Education System, I wrote a report on the living conditions of students in higher education. I also took part in the employment and poverty think tank. In 2007, after being re-elected MP for Haute-Loire in the first ballot, I was appointed Secretary of State and government spokesman by the President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and tasked with updating government communication.
I was then elected Mayor of Puy-en-Velay in March 2008, before becoming Secretary of State for Employment under Christine Lagarde. In this role, I channelled my efforts into supporting job seekers, reforming vocational training and improving employment for seniors. In the face of the economic crisis, we developed tools to better protect employees, such as improved conditions for employees working part-time, or tools to help retrain employees made redundant.
I became European Affairs Minister in 2010, then Minister of Higher Education and Research in 2011, where my priority was to improve students’ living conditions. Currently President of the «Les Républicains» Party, I have for some years now been actively promoting the value of work to counter an over-reliance on state aid, and defending the middle classes, who should once again be the key focus of government policy. Elected President of the Auvergne Rhône- Alpes Region on 4 January 2016, I am determined to impart fresh momentum to France’s second-largest region.