DAMIEN ABAD. The deputy of Ain, Damien Abad, was appointed Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities by Emmanuel Macron, the day after his resignation from the group Les Républicains in the National Assembly…
[Mis à jour le 20 mai 2022 à 17h34] Damien Abad was appointed Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities by Emmanuel Macron this Friday, May 20, 2022. The former president of the group The Republicans in the Assembly therefore crosses the Rubicon and enters the government. As expected. While he never used his own disability (read below) as a means of promotion in politics and kept maximum discretion about his illness, Damien Abad is propelled to the very delicate portfolio of Persons with Disabilities. A position where he should be much more exposed to the media.
Damien Abad, who was under pressure from many LR executives for his displayed closeness to the majority in recent weeks, had confirmed yesterday, at the end of the day, that he was leaving the presidency of the Les Républicains group in the National Assembly and that he went “on leave” from his party. A decision taken within 24 hours of his appointment to the government. The one who was asked very directly by the president of the Republicans Christian Jacob to leave his functions, had explained in the columns of Figaro: “I decide today to leave my function as president of the LR group at the Assembly for the sake of clarity, consistency and responsibility,” he said.
“I remain a right-wing man, but I no longer recognize myself in LR’s approach” (Damien Abad at Figaro)
“I remain a right-wing man, but I no longer recognize myself in LR’s approach”, further explained Damien Abad, affirming that “faced with the populist danger, [il] don’t believe[yait] not to old divisions, but to the gathering of all those who wish to move our country forward”. The timing of this resignation, the day before the government’s announcement, like these elements of language, were already clear signals of a completely close.
Damien Abad was therefore until now LR deputy for Ain and president of the Les Républicains group in the National Assembly. Born April 5, 1980 in Nîmes, he comes from a family that fled Franco’s Spain during the 1930s and 1940s. The name Abad is also of Languedoc and Catalan origin. Damien Abad follows a brilliant schooling, despite his disability linked to a neurological disease, arthrogryposis (read below). He graduated from Sciences Po Bordeaux and graduated from Sciences Po Paris in the 2000s, where he became a lecturer. However, he will not succeed in integrating the ENA, failing twice in the Grand oral of the school of administration.
Young, Damien Abad approaches politics very early, working for centrist groups in the National Assembly on budgetary and tax issues. He will be a candidate in the 2007 legislative elections in the Yvelines, but will obtain less than 5% of the votes in the first round. Founder of the “Young Centrists” in 2008, he became Deputy Secretary General of the New Center two years later. Damien Abad then seeks a territory as a base and is successively elected municipal councilor of Vauvert (Gard), European deputy in the South-East constituency thanks to an alliance UMP-NC in 2009, then regional councilor of Rhône- Alps and finally departmental councilor of Ain, finally finding a department of adoption and a new party: the UMP. During the 2012 legislative elections, he was elected deputy in the newly created 5th constituency of Ain. He was re-elected in 2017 with 35% of the vote in the first round and 67% in the second, against a candidate from the Republic in March.
Damien Abad is known to have been one of the youngest elected members of the European Parliament, the youngest of French MEPs. He will also be one of the six youngest deputies in France to the National Assembly. Supporter of Bruno Le Maire for the primary of the right in 2016 and nevertheless faithful to François Fillon during the 2017 campaign, he will be vice-president of the Republicans for a time after having supported Laurent Wauquiez for the leadership of the party. He had supported Xavier Bertrand ahead of the 2022 presidential election and had since appeared in favor of a rapprochement with LREM.
Damien Abad, figure of the inclusion of people with disabilities
Damien Abad suffers from a rare congenital disease called “arthrogryposis”. This disease, known as “fetal immobility syndrome”, causes neurological abnormalities even before birth and manifests itself in a series of muscular problems in the four limbs. The consequences can also be skeletal or visceral. If birth mortality is high, a patient’s lifespan can then be normal, but often with severe handicaps.
“I have always made sure that it is neither a brake nor a driving force in politics” (Damien Abad about his disability in Le Parisien, in January 2020)
Damien Abad will be the first elected representative of the Fifth Republic to carry such a visible handicap. The president of the LR group in the Assembly until 2022 is, in this sense, one of the rare personalities to embody the inclusion of people with physical disabilities in the political world in France. However, the new minister rarely speaks on this subject. Last January, without mentioning his personal case, he asked for a “public apology” from Eric Zemmour, who had castigated “the obsession with the inclusion” of children with disabilities in schools, believing that their place was in “establishments specialist”. In the columns of Figaro, Damien Abad denounced “an intolerable step back” and “a stab” for “all the families who fight daily for the integration of their children”.
We have to go back to a January 2020 interview with Le Parisien to see Damien Abad talk about his illness: “I have always made sure that it is neither a brake nor a driving force in politics”, he said then. “The very first time you come to a market, to distribute leaflets, that’s when it’s the most difficult.”
The rapprochement of Damien Abad and Emmanuel Macron
The appointment of Damien Abad to the Ministry of Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities is the result of a process that began weeks ago. Only a few days after the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, Le Figaro had revealed a meeting at the Elysee Palace between Damien Abad and Thierry Solère, political adviser to the Head of State, known for recruiting new supporters on the right. A meeting which remained “of the order of the exchange of views”, assured his entourage to AFP. But the news, which fell in the middle of the LR strategic council, on April 26, had cast a chill. Especially since, during this meeting, Damien Abad had chosen to abstain on the vote on the motion declaring the “independence” of the party from the Macronist bloc and from any other force in the National Assembly.
“This ni-ni does not suit me” (Damien Abad at Figaro, April 26)
“This ‘ni-ni’ does not suit me. I know how to tell the difference between Emmanuel Macron and the extremes”, then justified Damien Abad, questioned about his abstention by Le Figaro. Since then, regularly questioned about the possibility of seeing him join the presidential majority, the deputy had remained evasive. Damien Abad had so far been content to kick in touch: “I have no comment to make on the composition of the government”, he still evacuated Thursday, May 19, while, earlier in the day, Christian Jacob criticized him in a press release for waiting for Emmanuel Macron’s decision “to take it or not to take it from the government” before making his choice.
What consequences could have the departure of Damien Abad from the presidency of the LR group in the Assembly and his putting on leave of the Republicans just before the legislative elections? “Yes [LREM] managed to poach Abad, we would clearly be in trouble for the legislative elections. He is the boss of the LR deputies, can you imagine the confusion in the minds of the voters?” confided a party executive several days ago to the Figaro. An elected LR also said that Damien Abad would have “received a few elected officials in a small committee at the Assembly”, on Monday April 25. “How many felons?” wondered this same elected official.
Thursday, May 19, Damien Abad himself assured it in the columns of Figaro: “There is no unanimity of the group against me, nor for a frontal and radical opposition to Emmanuel Macron. I received many messages of support from LR deputies. I do not want to put them in difficulty, but they share my political line.
Damien Abad is for his part still a candidate for the upcoming legislative elections, in the 5th constituency of Ain, where he has been elected since 2012. To remain in government, he will therefore have to win the ballot. And Les Républicains should complicate his task, the party having hastened to invest a candidate in front of him, as indicated by France Télévisions from this Thursday, May 19. LR is counting on Julien Martinez, municipal councilor of Oyonnax, to disrupt the campaign of the recent minister. LREM had not invested any candidate against Damien Abad. Another sign of rapprochement with the presidential majority and another cause for anger among the leaders of the Republicans before his appointment.