Laurent Wauquiez

Laurent Timothée Marie Wauquiez (born 12 April 1975) is a French politician who has presided over the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes since 2016.

Member of the National Assembly of France for Haute-Loire's 1st constituency : 2004-2007 (He became secretary of State in 2007) / Since 2012.

Elected in 2004 (by-election), reelected in 2007 and 2012.

He also was Government Spokesman from June 2007 to March 2008 as Minister of State under the Prime Minister.

Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, Government Spokesperson: 2007-2008

Wauquiez was Secretary of State for European Affairs under the Foreign Minister Alain Juppé; and previously Secretary of State for Employment under the Minister of the Economy, Industry and Employment from March 2008 in François Fillon's government.

He was named the Secretary of State for Employment in 2008 and also functioned as the government spokesman.

He later served as Minister of European Affairs and of Higher Education.

Secretary of State for Employment: 2008-2010

Mayor of Le Puy-en-Velay : 2008-2016 (Resignation).

Municipal councillor of Le Puy-en-Velay : 2008-2016 (Resignation).

Minister for European Affairs: 2010-2011

Minister of Higher Education and Research: 2011-2012

In 2012, he was re-elected to the National Assembly and became head of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in 2015.

Reelected in 2014.

Reelected in 2014.

He was elected as 2nd Vice President of the ORU Fogar at the organisation's General Assembly held in Quito, Ecuador on 16 October 2016.

President of the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes : since 2016

He is a member of The Republicans (LR), which he led from 2017 to 2019 following the resignation of Nicolas Sarkozy.

On 10 December 2017, Wauquiez was elected to the presidency of The Republicans with 74% of the vote.

Pundits have described him as moving the party to the right.

On 10 December 2017, Wauquiez was elected as the president of The Republicans, winning over Maël de Calan and Florence Portelli.

During his time in office, he overrode party scepticism to appoint François-Xavier Bellamy to lead the LR list in the European elections.

On 2 June 2019, a week after overseeing the worst result for the right in its history in the European election with 8% of the vote, Wauquiez resigned as party president.

Wauquiez graduated from the École normale supérieure and Université Panthéon-Sorbonne with a masters in history and studied public law at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po); he later attended the École nationale d'administration (ÉNA).

He worked as professor at Emlyon Business School.

Wauquiez held several governmental positions over the course of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency.

He resigned in June 2019, bowing to pressure to step down after a his party’s weak performance in the elections.

In August 2021, Wauquiez decided not to run as the Republicans’s candidate in the 2022 presidential election.

Ahead of the Republicans' 2022 convention, Wauquiez endorsed Éric Ciotti as the party's chairman.

Wauquiez is known for wearing a red parka coat.