The new Prime Minister of France, François Bayrou, announced last Monday the composition of his Government, as instructed by President Emmanuel Macron. This is a cabinet that continues with that of his ill-fated predecessor, Michel Barnier. From this side of the Pyrenees what What catches our attention the most is the return of Manuel Valls. The former socialist and former Barcelona councilor is the new French Overseas Minister.
Valls? But hadn’t he retired? This is the comment that many have made upon learning of his appointment. No, Manuel Valls was still there, waiting. Because those who know him assure that the one from Barcelona (he was born in Barcelona on August 13, 1962) He is political 24 hours a day; a political addict; and an ambitious survivor.
In Spain we lost track of him in August 2021, when he announced his departure from Barcelona City Council, where he was a councillor. Although he promised to stay until the end, he completed just over half of the term. Thus ended his dream of being mayor of the city where he was born. In this time, just over three years, He has waited for his opportunity and it has arrived.
“I am the son of a Spanish painter and a Swiss Italian mother who chose France for its beauty, for its greatness, for its sweetness,” Valls once said, who He was born in the La Ferroviaria clinic on Campoamor Street. from the Barcelona neighborhood of Horta. But they wanted their eldest son to be born there. That Spanish painter was the son of Magí Valls, a Catalan religious man, founder of the newspaper The Mati in 1929.
Pragmatic and moderate socialist
Due to the different origins of his family, Valls speaks French, Spanish, Italian and Catalan languages fluently. In politics the “socialist” spoke, in its most moderate variantuntil he stopped deceiving himself and pretending to be what he was no longer.
He joined the French Socialist Party (PS) when he was 17 years old and remained there until 2017, when it was evident that from a pragmatist he had become directly conservative. Because during his time at the PS, Valls was from the pragmatic, that is, centrist, principle.
Manuel Valls wanted to “reconcile the left with liberal thought”
The Wikipedia entry on Manuel Valls reads the following: “He was on the ‘right wing’ of the Socialist Party, although he defines himself more as a ‘Blairista’, in particular due to his insistence on issues such as security, responsibility individual or ‘denial of assistance’. “reconcile the left with liberal thought” and in that sense he declares himself ‘Clintonian’.”
Valls, the ambitious
Indeed, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were references for the socialist Vallsalthough he has always preferred to mention others, such as Michel Rocard, Willy Brandt, Olof Palme, George Clemenceau, Simone Veil, François Mitterrand and, from here, Felipe González.
After holding different positions in municipal and regional administrations, the prime minister Lionel Jospin gave him his first big opportunity by making him his communications advisor in 1997. Later he was mayor of Évry (2001-2008) and in 2002 a deputy in the National Assembly of France, being re-elected in 2007.
In June 2009, he announced his intention to contest the Socialist Party primaries to be the candidate in the 2012 presidential elections. That did not take shape, but after the elections, Francois Hollande, as the new president of the Republic, appointed an Executive in the fact that Valls held the Interior portfolio.
Hollande’s Prime Minister
The Barcelona native’s career reached its peak in March 2014. Hollande chose him as prime minister. In two different terms, he was prime minister until December 2016. Ambitious, He recovered the idea of running for the presidency of France and for this he announced his resignation as head of the Government.
Once again he mismeasured his strength and support. He didn’t even make it through his party’s primaries.defeated by Benoit Hamon. At that point, he broke the mold by refusing to back the winner. He betrayed his in-laws and supported Macron.
It was evident to public opinion that Valls was no longer a moderate socialist, but perhaps a conservative centrist. The dream of the Elysée ended, in June 2017, Valls announced the end of his militancy in the Socialist Party, after 37 years.
Barcelona, the last ambition
The setback and the break with his lifelong party led him to look for oxygen in other areas. There he remembered that Barcelona was the city in which he had been born and that is how he tried to become mayor. It was in 2018 and it failed: it obtained six councilors, just one more than Ciudadanos had. “Very, very far from our expectations,” Valls said. That phrase sums up his political history quite well: excessive ambition and optimistic expectations.
“Manuel Valls is a bit of a kamikaze… he is not afraid of risk”
Then, between independentists and leftists, he chose the latter. With his votes he helped Ada Colau become mayor. In 2021, it has already been said, he left the Barcelona council.
The recovered kamikaze
I return to Paris, but no longer on the front line. He was frequently seen as a television talk show host. Finish? It is clear that not. He is a political animal. And although in the ten years that have passed since he was elected prime minister, French politics has changed drastically, Valls continues.
How is it possible that everything changes but Valls, the politician, continues? Maybe because “He’s a bit of a kamikaze… he’s not afraid of risk,” as Prime Minister Bayrou has said, who has rescued him for his cabinet. Another thing is how long Valls can last, not because of him, not even because of Bayrou, but because of the fragility that the Fifth Republic shows today.
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