Catherine Colonna is appointed Foreign Minister of the new government. The diplomat takes over from Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Quai d’Orsay.
For the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne have chosen something new by appointing Catherine Colonna. The current ambassador of France in London was not one of the main hypotheses mentioned to take the place of Jean-Yves Le Drian. It is however his name that appears on the list unveiled by the secretary general of the Elysée, Alexis Kohler, this afternoon. Catherine Colonna arrives at the Quai d’Orsay in a demanding context, in the midst of the war in Ukraine, and while France holds the presidency of the EU for a few more months. But the diplomat has experience in the matter.
Who is Catherine Colonna, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs?
One thing is certain: Catherine Colonna’s CV fits well with the position entrusted to her. Spokesperson for the Elysée under the presidency of Jacques Chirac, she was then Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the government of Dominique De Villepin (2005-2007). Subsequently, Catherine Colonna was the permanent representative of France to UNESCO and the OECD. She is now France’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, after spending time in Italy from 2014 to 2017. A diplomat by training, Catherine Colonna has already worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the start of her career (1986-1988), as responsible for European law in the legal affairs department.
Catherine Colonna therefore eclipses the two main hypotheses that had been put forward to replace Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Quai d’Orsay: that of Bernard Cazeneuve, former Prime Minister of François Hollande, who recently left the Socialist Party; and that of Audrey Azoulay, current president of Unesco, approached for a time for Matignon.
A relationship with Yvan Colonna?
If Catherine Colonna has Corsican origins, no relationship is known to her with the Corsican independence activist Yvan Colonna, who died in March 2022 following his attack in prison. Catherine Colonna is the daughter of a farmer of Corsican origin, but she herself was born in Tours (Indre-et-Loire).
Jean-Yves Le Drian leaves the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
At almost 75, Jean-Yves Le Drian leaves the government without much surprise. From the end of March, in a portrait of the JDD, the minister spoke of his desire to retire and return to his native Brittany. “He’s stopping. That’s what he told me,” François Hollande then blurted out on May 9 during France 5’s “C’est à Vous” program. however refused to confirm Le Drian, a few hours later, questioned by BFMTV, contenting himself with declaring: “I am completely mobilized by my task in the dramatic crisis that Ukraine is going through and honestly, my own person, my own future does not has nothing to do with it.”