Michèle Alliot-Marie

Michèle Yvette Marie-Thérèse Jeanne Honorine Alliot-Marie (French: [miʃɛl aljomaʁi]; born 10 September 1946), known in France as MAM, is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from France. She is a member of the Republicans, part of the European People's Party. A member of all right-wing governments formed in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, she was the first woman in France to hold the portfolios of Defense (2002–2007), the Interior (2007–2009) and Foreign Affairs (2010–2011); she has also been in charge of Youth and Sports (1993–1995) and Justice (2009–2010), and was granted the honorary rank of Minister of State in her last two offices.

She resigned from government in 2011 due to her position during the Tunisian Revolution; one year later, in the 2012 French legislative elections, she lost her seat as Deputy (MP) for the 6th Constituency of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. She became a member of the European Parliament in 2014. She remains Deputy Mayor of Saint-Jean-de-Luz as well as Vice President of the National Council of The Republicans.

Alliot-Marie was the last President of the Rally for the Republic (1999–2002), an incarnation of the Gaullist party, and was the first woman to chair a major French political party. She has remained a leading Gaullist after the RPR merged into the UMP and was seen as a rival to Nicolas Sarkozy before and after his election as president in 2007, although direct confrontation was always avoided.

Alliot-Marie is a law and political science scholar. Her companion is Patrick Ollier, Minister in charge of Relations with Parliament in the Fillon II government; both were ministers simultaneously for a few months in 2010–2011, the first time a couple ever sat in a French government.