Valérie Pécresse

Valérie Pécresse (* July 14, 1967 in Neuilly -sur -Seine ( Hauts -de- Seine) ) is a French politician (UMP ). On 16 June 2002 she was elected as a Member of the RPR / UMP for the 2nd electoral district of the department of Yvelines in the French National Assembly. From May 2007 to June 2011 it was Minister for Higher Education and Research in the government of François Fillon, to 15 May 2012, it was budget minister.

Life

Valérie Pécresse is the daughter of Dominique Roux ( Professor of Economics / Management and - since January 2007 - President of the large company Bolloré Télécom ). On August 6, 1994, she married Jérôme Pécresse, the then Director General ( today COO) of Imerys. She is the mother of a daughter and two sons. It is committed to the Roman Catholic Church.

Born Valérie Pécresse in Neuilly -sur -Seine, a Paris suburb Nobel, whose mayor for nearly 20 years Nicolas Sarkozy said. She went first at the Collège Sainte -Marie de Neuilly, then at the private Catholic school Sainte- Genevieve in Versailles to school. Above average gifted she graduated from high school at the age of 16. After studying at the private university École des Hautes Études Commerciales ( HEC) and then at the State Administration School École nationale d'administration (ENA ), she has served, among others, from 1992 to 1998 a high official in the French State.

Political career

Jacques Chirac makes Valérie Pécresse 1998 Presidential advisor and commissioned them with studies, among others, on juvenile crime, urban policy, state reform, the Internet and problems of the information society. In 2002, she proposes the RPR deputies of Yvelines and former minister in the government of Alain Juppe, Franck Borotra before, to apply for a seat in the National Assembly. In the election of 9./16. June 2002 wins the mandate for Yvelines ( 2ème ). Two years later, she is spokeswoman for the UMP ( September 21, 2002, the RPR had officially disbanded and was absorbed into the UMP).

After Nicolas Sarkozy's election victory in 2007 she was Research and Higher Education Minister. She is the first holder of the office, which was previously a state Secretariat of the Ministry of Education. Your first successes granted her a certain popularity.

In the summer of 2008, they announced their intention to compete in the primaries of the conservative camp for the Paris regional elections of 2010. My opponent was the UMP party leader in the Paris Regional Council and government colleague Roger Karoutchi. Despite the crisis, the University Minister decided to fight for themselves: The code was held from 16 to 22 March and was won by Pécresse with 59.9 %.

In June 2011, she was budget minister.

Government

In the first weeks after joining the government François Fillon was Précesse who himself had never studied at a university, in charge of a fundamental reform of higher education, ie, the "Law on the freedom and the responsibility of Universities ( LRU) " push through. The first draft was rejected in the academic world. A second version was supported by the university president, and the Socialists related student federation UNEF. In the fall of 2007, a protest movement arose against this law, which encouraged competition among the universities and the influence of the college presidents strengthened considerably. The left-wing opponents of the project spoke of a " mixture of feudalism and neo-liberalism ". After a few weeks, the protest movement fizzled.

In autumn 2008 Pecresse announced a reform of collective and employment contracts for university teachers and researchers. This should be subject to stricter control, academic staff should take more lectures. So far, France has the balance of teaching and research time (each 86 hours per year). They took exception to the fact that inspections should be the exclusive privilege of the university president. Opponents of the LRU law felt confirmed and were now supported by numerous colleagues.

This reform, as well as the experience of the teaching staff at the few universities that were self-employed since January 2009, triggered a further protest movement. Nicolas Sarkozy's speech of 22 January, in which he made ​​fun of scientists and universities and all the laziness and incompetence imputed, shocked the academic community. Education Minister Xavier Darcos announced a reform of the state tests for the teaching profession, which was also controversial. The trade unions and academics organizations spoke of a clenched ideological attack on the French education system and demanded the resignation of Valérie Pécresse whose crisis management has also been criticized within the UMP. She had to renounce UMP prefix events. On February 27, Valérie Pécresse announced the complete revision of its draft legislation, as it had demanded it, the trade unions and representatives of their own party. However, these changes were not enough to end the protest movement, which now calls for the abolition of the LRU law and all reform designs.

Awards

In 2008 she was anglaise by the Académie de la Carpette criticized for promoting the use of English in the European institutions and the university.