Exit Valérie Fourneyron. Manuel Valls, the new head of the French government, appointed this Wednesday April 2, 2014 Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, 36, new Minister of Sports. A portfolio that she will assume within a vast ministry also bringing together Women's Rights, the City and Youth.
A novice in the field of sport, unlike Valérie Fourneyron, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem will have little time to discover the files. She will have to take a position on the sports modernization law, which Valérie Fourneyron intended to present next May to the Council of Ministers. He will also have to closely follow the preparation for Euro 2016 football organized in France.
Above all, the new Minister of Sports will have to look into the question of a French candidacy for the Summer Games in 2024. Reluctant at first, Valérie Fourneyron seized the idea head-on, assuring last month in an interview to the Team having “always loved challenges”. Will Najat Vallaud-Belkacem follow this path? The question will be asked very quickly. As it will very quickly be asked of Anne Hidalgo, the new mayor of Paris. Without consensus between the two women, the project could falter.
Entering professional life in a Parisian law firm at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem joined the Socialist party in 2002. Two years later, she was elected regional councilor in Rhône-Alpes . For this native of Beni Chiker, a Moroccan village, the rise has been meteoric since in 2007, she was already the 3rd spokesperson for Ségolène Royal, candidate in the presidential election.
Even if she continued to support Ségolène Royal for the socialist primary of 2011, François Hollande, finally designated PS candidate for the presidential election, did not hold it against her and named her spokesperson for his own campaign on November 16, 2011. Already the youngest member of the Ayrault government, it remains in the new team formed by Manuel Valls.
