Yaël Braun-Pivet

Yaël Braun-Pivet
Braun-Pivet in 2017
President of the National Assembly
Assumed office
28 June 2022
PresidentEmmanuel Macron
Preceded byRichard Ferrand
Minister of Overseas Territories
In office
20 May 2022 – 25 June 2022
PresidentEmmanuel Macron
Prime MinisterÉlisabeth Borne
Preceded bySébastien Lecornu
Succeeded byÉlisabeth Borne (Acting)
Member of the National Assembly
for Yvelines's 5th constituency
Assumed office
21 June 2017
Preceded byJacques Myard
Majority10,557 (29.24%)
Personal details
Born
Yaël Braun

(1970-12-07) 7 December 1970 (age 53)
Nancy, France
Political partyRenaissance (2016–present)
Other political
affiliations
Socialist Party (2000s)
Spouse
Vianney Pivet
(m. 2014)
Children5
Alma materParis Nanterre University
ProfessionLawyer

Yaël Braun-Pivet (French pronunciation: [jaɛl bʁon pivɛ]; born 7 December 1970) is a French lawyer and politician who has served as President of the French National Assembly since 28 June 2022. She is the first woman to hold this position. A member of Renaissance (RE), she was previously Minister of Overseas Territories under Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne from May to June in 2022. She has been a member of the French National Assembly since 2017, representing the department of Yvelines.

Background

Braun-Pivet was born Yaël Braun in Nancy in Eastern France. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish and had settled in France in the 1930s in order to escape antisemitism. Her grandfather was a Polish tailor while her grandmother was German. After World War II her grandfather received the French Resistance Medal. Braun-Pivet's mother had grown up in care.[1][2]

Braun-Pivet attended a Jewish school in Strasbourg and went on to study law at Paris Nanterre University.[3][4] After practising as a criminal lawyer for several years, she followed her husband, an executive with L'Oréal, to Taiwan and Japan, where the two youngest of their five children were born.[2] On their return to France in 2012, Braun-Pivet took up voluntary work with Restaurants du Cœur (a French charity which distributes food to those in need), where she organised free legal advice for people who could not afford access to justice.[2]

Political career

Braun-Pivet, representing Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance Party, was elected as a member of the French National Assembly for the 5th constituency of Yvelines in June 2017. That same month she was elected chair of the Law Committee.[2] She led the work of the committee on a 2017 law regulating conflict of interest among elected officials, which had been initiated as a consequence of the Fillon affair.[5] In 2018, when she was chair of the inquiry into the Benalla Affair, she was criticised for her refusal to summon Alexis Kohler, general secretary of the president's office, to give evidence.[6]

In September 2018, after François de Rugy's appointment to the government, Braun-Pivet announced her candidacy for the presidency of the National Assembly; she eventually withdrew and instead endorsed Richard Ferrand.[2]

In February 2021, Braun-Pivet received the support of the entire National Assembly after being targeted by an email with anti-Semitic insults and threats; shortly after, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation.[7]

Braun-Pivet was appointed Minister of Overseas Territories in May 2022, but stepped down a month later when she was elected President of the National Assembly, the first woman to hold the position.[2]

On 4 March 2024, Braun-Pivet became the first woman to preside over a joint session of the Assembly and Senate, overseeing the historic vote to inscribe the "freedom of women to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy" in the French constitution.[8]

Political positions

In July 2019, Braun-Pivet voted in favor of the French ratification of the European Union's Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada.[9]

In 2021, Braun-Pivet proposed a new ad-hoc body to better supervise the government's decision-making process on the COVID-19 pandemic in France.[10]

Also in 2021, Braun-Pivet voted against the party line and instead supported draft legislation proposed by the Liberties and Territories group aimed at legalising assisted suicide.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ "La Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale". Assemblée Nationale (in French). Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "French lawmakers elect Yaël Braun-Pivet as National Assembly president, first woman in role". France 24. 28 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Jewish lawmaker becomes first female speaker of French National Assembly". The Times of Israel. 29 June 2022.
  4. ^ "La Présidence de l'Assemblée nationale". Assemblée Nationale (in French). Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Les débuts difficiles des LRM à la commission des lois". Le Monde (in French). 22 July 2017.
  6. ^ "France: Yaël Braun-Pivet makes history as first female Assemblée Nationale president". Le Monde. 29 June 2022.
  7. ^ "Antisémitisme : enquête ouverte après les menaces ayant visé Yaël Braun-Pivet (LREM)]". Le Figaro (in French). 18 February 2021.
  8. ^ "France enshrines 'freedom' to abortion in Constitution, in world first". Le Monde. 4 March 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2024.
  9. ^ "CETA : qui a voté quoi parmi les députés". Le Monde (in French). 24 July 2019.
  10. ^ "Covid-19: Braun-Pivet (LREM) réclame une nouvelle instance plus «transparente» que le Conseil de défense". Le Figaro (in French). 2 February 2012.
  11. ^ "Euthanasie : la présidente LREM de la commission des Lois à l'Assemblée défend «le droit de choisir sa fin de vie»". Le Figaro (in French). 14 March 2021.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of the Overseas
2022
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the National Assembly
2022–present
Incumbent
Order of precedence
Preceded byas President of the Senate Order of precedence of France
President of the National Assembly
Succeeded by
Nicolas Sarkozy
as Former President of the Republic
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