Arnaud Montebourg (; born 30 October 1962) is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who served as the Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 to 2014, then as Minister of Economy, Industrial Renewal, and Digital Affairs, 31 March 2014 until his resignation on 25 August.
He is a former member of the Socialist Party (PS), which he left in 2018.
He previously served as the member of the National Assembly for the 6th constituency of Saône-et-Loire from 1997 until 2012, and President of the General Council of Saône-et-Loire from 2008 to 2012.
In 2021, he announced his candidacy for the French presidential election of 2022, before stepping down three months before the election.
Early life and education
Montebourg was born on 30 October 1962, in the French commune of Clamecy, in Nièvre region. His father, Michel Montebourg, who was a tax inspector for the Ministry of Economy and Finances, was born in 1933. His mother, Leïla Ould Cadi, who was born in 1939 in Algeria, was of Algerian and French descent; she was born into a family of wālis (governors) from Hachem in Northern Algeria. His Algerian grandfather fought in the French Army during World War II. His Algerian great-grandfather, Ahmed Ould Cadi, who was an agha (chieftain), fought against the Ottoman caliphate before joining the French Army. He was appointed Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1867.
He began working as an attorney with notable attorney Thierry Levy.
He has worked in several publicized cases. In 1995, he worked as the lawyer of Christian Didier, assassin of René Bousquet. Bousquet was a former Vichy official who had been indicted for war crimes and was soon to be tried. Didier was convicted in 1995 and received a 10-year sentence. Didier did not want to be considered insane, so Montebourg helped get the court to recognize him as responsible for the act.
First involvements in politics
Montebourg was first elected to the National Assembly during the 1997 legislative election. He was reelected in 2002 and in 2007.
In 2001, Together with Bastien François, a professor of Political Science at Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Montebourg became the cofounder of the Convention pour la VI-ème République (C6R). This convention called for significant constitutional changes, and for a Sixth French Republic. Its objectives were to decrease the power of the president and allow a parliamentary balance.
Montebourg was one of the founding members of the political movement known as the Nouveau Parti Socialiste (New Socialist Party), where he defended economical protectionism and sovereignty. When the movement ended due to internal difficulties, he created a new movement within the Socialist Party called Rénover, Maintenant (Renewal, Now). He was one of the leading opponents of President Jacques Chirac's immunity from prosecution, especially concerning the corruption scandals in the Paris region.
Montebourg, also supported reporter Denis Robert for his role in revealing the illegal system of double-accounts maintained by Clearstream, a clearing-house based in Luxembourg, involving high-ranking politicians. He has also been engaged in a campaign against the rules governing taxation of foreign nationals and the banking secrecy of Switzerland.
Montebourg was appointed as spokesman for Ségolène Royal's presidential campaign following his endorsement of her candidacy during the Socialist Party primary election in November 2006. On 18 January 2007, Royal suspended him from her campaign for one month the day after he gave an interview on a Canal+ talk show, where he said, "Ségolène Royal has only one fault, her partner." He was referring to the contradictory statements on tax policy made by Royal's partner, François Hollande, who was at the time serving as First Secretary of the Socialist Party. Montebourg had offered his resignation, which Royal refused to accept.
In 2008, Monteboug became President of the General Council of Saône-et-Loire, while at the same time retaining his mandate as a parliamentarian. In 2011, when Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from prison and flown back to France, Montebourg urged him to apologise for embarrassing the Socialist Party.
Minister during the presidency of François Hollande
Montebourg finished third in the Socialist Party's primary election for the 2012 presidential election, receiving about 17% of the vote. François Hollande finished first and Martine Aubry finished second. After Hollande was elected President of France, Montebourg was appointed as Minister of Industrial Renewal on 16 May 2012 in the government of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault .