Bernard Cazeneuve is expected to replace Gabriel Attal at Matignon. While nothing is certain yet, he could survive the motion of censure promised by LFI if he were called upon to form a government. A look back at his career.
Bernard Cazeneuve’s name has been mentioned all summer in discussions about the new Prime Minister. Even if the head of state is slow to name a new Matignon tenant, he seems to be the candidate who is holding up best for the moment. Lucie Castets is proposed by the NFP, but Emmanuel Macron has already announced that it will not be her. We had also heard the names of Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse, but these hypotheses seem distant today.
A youth in a very left-wing family
Bernard Cazeneuve comes from a left-wing family. He is the son of Algerian pieds-noirs. His father, Gérard Cazeneuve, was a schoolteacher in the Châteauneuf district, in the commune of El Biar, near Algiers. The Cazeneuve family returned to France during the “events” in Algeria and settled in Oise, where Bernard Cazeneuve was born. His father was a leader of the PS in Oise. Following in his footsteps, his involvement in politics began during his studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Bordeaux. He headed the federation of the young radical left movement of Gironde, then became a member of the national office of the Movement of Radical Left (MRG) in 1985, before joining the PS in 1987.
Before dedicating his life to politics, he began a career as a lawyer at Banque Populaire. A career in the business sector that he returned to in 2017, after resigning following the election of Emmanuel Macron, by returning to the business law firm August Debouzy in Paris, which deals in particular with Microsoft, Orange and SNCF, as recalled TF1 info.
Minister during the attacks, Prime Minister, founder of a party
Bernard Cazeneuve was Minister of the Interior from 2014 to 2016, under the Valls I and II governments. There, he was confronted with the series of Islamist attacks that shook France. First with the attack on Charlie Hebdo on January 7 by the Kouachi brothers, then the shooting in Montrouge by Amedy Coulibaly, and the escape of the two brothers. He was in command during the two hostage-takings of January 9: at the Hyper Cacher at Porte de Vincennes (Coulibaly) and at the printing press in Dammartin-en-Goële (Kouachi). It was also up to him to lead the police during the attacks of November 13, at the Stade de France, the Bataclan and on the terraces of the 10th and 11th arrondissements of Paris.
He was appointed Prime Minister of François Hollande after the resignation of Manuel Valls. The latter wanted to leave the government to run in the citizen primary for the 2017 presidential election. He remained at Matignon from December 6, 2016 to May 15, 2017, breaking the record for the shortest time at Matignon, held before him by Édith Cresson.
Although he joined the business law firm August Debouzy after Emmanuel Macron came to power, he remains a member of the Socialist Party until 2022. Bernard Cazeneuve announced to The Free Channel his departure from the PS after the creation of Nupes in view of the legislative elections. This union of the left was made with La France insoumise, which he does not carry in his heart. He justified his departure by affirming that he had “left the Socialist Party in disagreement with the alliance made with Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party”.
Bernard Cazeneuve subsequently created his own political movement, La Convention, assuring that it was “the left of government that changes the life that you seek to revive”. Particularly critical of LFI, he could well embody a left-wing Prime Minister, as the French called for in the legislative elections, but without the rebels, as desired by a majority of the Assembly. But nothing is done yet. Bernard Cazeneuve should be received Monday by Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée.
A wife who died in June 2024 and two children
He married Véronique Beau in 1995, at the age of 32. Director of a children’s publishing house, they have two children together: Nathan and Mona. The first studied at the École Normale Supérieure and the School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po, two prestigious schools. He is an associate professor of philosophy and wrote a thesis on “the social state and the theory of sovereignty”. He created the journal Germinal in 2020, which aims to be “the left’s equivalent of the journal Commentaire of the early 1980s”, according to Gala. Mona obtained her BA in theatre in England and graduated from ESRA in directing and screenwriting. She is now an international acquisitions coordinator at Fédération Studios.
The Cazeneuve couple divorced in 2012, after three years of separation, but got back together in 2015. They even remarried in August of the same year. Véronique Cazeneuve died in June 2024, following a long illness.