Gérald Darmanin

French politician (born 1982)

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Gérald Moussa Jean Darmanin ([ʒeʁald daʁmanɛ̃] ; born 11 October 1982) is a French politician who has been serving as Minister of Justice in the successive governments of Prime Ministers François Bayrou and Sébastien Lecornu since 2024. He previously served as Minister of the Interior in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean Castex, Élisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal from 2020 to 2024.

A former member of The Republicans (LR), Darmanin has been a member of La République En Marche! (LREM) since 2017. Darmanin was Mayor of Tourcoing from 2014 to 2017 and Minister of Public Action and Accounts in the first and second governments of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe from 2017 until 2020.

Early life and education

Gérald Moussa Jean Darmanin was born to a working-class family with Algerian and Maltese roots. His father, Gérard Darmanin, managed a bistro and his mother, Annie Ouakid, worked as a cleaner. His maternal grandfather, Moussa Ouakid, born in 1907 in the douar (a camp of Algerian tents or small rural village of few little houses) Ouled Ghalia, in the Ouarsenis, in Algeria, was a Chief Warrant Officer in the French Army and decorated with the Médaille militaire. He served in the Algerian tirailleurs and was also a résistant in the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) during the Second World War and a Harki during the Algerian War.

Darmanin struggled academically while attending a public school in Valenciennes, so his parents decided to pay for private education in Paris. When they ran out of money for tuition, the school allowed Darmanin to finish his studies for free; in exchange, he had to spend years working as a hall monitor. After working odd jobs that included singing in the metro and waiting tables, he enrolled at Sciences Po Lille, following a year at Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP) in its preparatory school ("prépa" or "classe préparatoire") for entrance to Institutes of Political Studies IEP (known as Sciences Po) including the courses of a first year of DEUG in History (the daughter of Fuad II the last King of Egypt Princess Fawzia-Latifa of Egypt and Michel Fayad were then his classmates).

Political career

Early beginnings

Early on, Darminin worked as a parliamentary assistant for conservative MP Isabelle Vasseur before joining former minister and then Member of the European Parliament Jacques Toubon. He was taken under the wing of Toubon, who introduced him to UMP leaders such as Xavier Bertrand and helped him become chief of staff to Sarkozy's Minister of Sports, David Douillet.

In the 2012 legislative election, Darmanin was elected to the National Assembly in the tenth constituency of Nord; at the time, he was one of the country's youngest lawmakers. He ran two years later for election as Mayor of Tourcoing and won, establishing himself on the national political scene. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy brought Darmanin on board as director of his primary election campaign in 2016.

In response to the Fillon affair, Darmanin renounced his support for LR candidate François Fillon in the 2017 presidential election and resigned from his position as the party's deputy general secretary.

Minister of Public Action and Accounts, 2017–2020

In May 2017, Darmanin was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron to be Minister of Public Action and Accounts in the First Philippe government. In this capacity, he supported Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, although himself a cabinet member. At the time of his appointment, he was one of the youngest members in Édouard Philippe's government.

Soon after taking office, Darmanin announced plans to achieve 4.5 billion euros ($5.13 billion) in savings on the French government's operational budget in 2017. That year, he managed to bring the country's budget deficit below the EU-mandated limit of 3 percent of GDP, the first time in a decade for France. He also helped implement Macron's main tax reforms and oversaw an overhaul of tax collection.

In 2018 Darmanin was accused of sexual coercion and harassment by two women relating to alleged misconduct in 2009 and between 2014 and 2017, with one of the women alleging that while Mayor of Tourcoing he asked for sexual favours in exchange for providing her with social housing. However prosecutors dropped the case, claiming an inability to determine an "absence of consent", as Darmanin denied both allegations. In June 2020, the Court of Appeal of Paris ordered the reopening of the investigation.

In 2019, Darmanin oversaw a widely discussed agreement between Google and French tax authorities, marking the end of a four-year investigation that looked at whether the company routed profits from its French activities to Ireland, which was a lower-tax jurisdiction at the time. Google eventually agreed to pay almost 1 billion euros to settle all of its litigation with the tax authorities.

In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Darmanin oversaw the government's efforts to mobilise 150 billion euros to support industries the hardest hit by the crisis as part of a response that pushed debt to record levels.

In the 2020 municipal election, Darmanin was reelected as Mayor of Tourcoing but resigned soon thereafter.

Minister of the Interior, 2020–2022

In 2020, Darmanin was appointed Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex, succeeding Christophe Castaner.

At the age of thirty-seven, Darmanin became the youngest Minister of the Interior of the Fifth Republic.

Following the murder of Samuel Paty by an Islamic terrorist in October 2020, Darmanin announced a large police sweep against several individuals. He also ordered the closing of the Pantin mosque in the Parisian suburb Seine-Saint-Denis after it re-broadcast a video containing false allegations about Paty. Darmanin subsequently ordered the dissolution of other associations with ties to radical Islam and deemed "separatist".

In response to the 2020 Nice stabbing committed by a Tunisian migrant, Darmanin negotiated deportation procedures with Tunisia.

In February 2020, Darmanin sponsored a bill that French lawmakers said they hoped would uproot radical Islam in France. Darmanin said the aim of the bill is to stop "an Islamist hostile takeover targeting Muslims". In March 2021, Darmanin went to court to prevent the building of a new mosque in Strasbourg, arguing dark money was involved in the project. In 2022, Darmanin closed the Islamic website La Voie Droite using the 2021 legislation. Also based on that legislation, he filed a successive objection against the city of Grenoble's decision to allow the use of body-covering "burkini" bathing suits for women in municipal pools in May 2022.

In early 2021, Darmanin also oversaw a ban of the Génération identitaire group, the youth wing of Bloc Identitaire, arguing that the organisation promoted "an ideology inciting hatred, violence and discrimination on the basis of one's origin, race or religion".

In May 2021, Darmanin asked the Paris police to block a planned pro-Palestinian rally amid the Israel–Palestine crisis; he urged police chiefs across France to remain vigilant, noting that "serious disturbances to public order were seen in 2014."

Following Jean Castex's resignation in May 2022, Macron appointed Élisabeth Borne, Minister of Labour and Darmanin's former colleague, as Prime Minister from 20 May 2022. Darmanin's position in the new government remained unchanged, with his responsibilities as Minister of the Interior.

Shortly after the new government was sworn in, the 2022 UEFA Champions League final at the Stade de France in Paris was marred by a huge scandal. Following the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final chaos many, including Borne, called for Darmanin's resignation. However, French President Emmanuel Macron stood by his interior minister wholeheartedly, to the extent that he survived the crisis with his powers strengthened in an almost unprecedented way.

By 2023, news media considered Darmanin one of Borne's main rivals inside the government and a potential candidate to succeed her.

Darmanin left the interior ministry in September 2024.

Minister of Justice, 2024–present

In December 2024, Darmanin was named justice minister in the Bayrou government.

In April 2025, Darmanin said in an interview that he wants to be president and was “working” on a platform.

Political positions

In the past, Darmanin has openly spoken out and voted against same-sex marriage in France, and criticized the influence of gender studies in identity politics. He reportedly meets with or reads the writings of influential voices from the far end of the political spectrum, such as essayists Alain Finkielkraut or Éric Zemmour.

In 2020, Darmanin expressed his opposition against mail-in voting to facilitate voting during the public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in France.