OLIVIA GREGOIRE. She was appointed government spokesperson following the reshuffle. Olivia Grégoire, LREM figure and former communicator, was once very close to Manuel Valls, which she finds today in the majority…
[Mis à jour le 20 mai 2022 à 19h13] Her name is Olivia Grégoire. Her name may not tell you anything, but in a few years, this 43-year-old woman, elected deputy with the label of the Republic in motion in 2017, has become one of the figures of the majority. So much so that this “boxer” or “puncher”, according to the most common qualifiers about her, ended up inheriting the government spokesperson in the new Borne government, announced this Friday, May 20. Olivia Grégoire, who since July 2020 was already Secretary of State in charge of the Social and Solidarity Economy, had hit the headlines just four years ago, in April 2018. At the time, a certain Manuel Valls, former Premier minister just separated from the musician Anne Gravoin, confirmed in the press people to be in a relationship with this former communicator launched in politics.
Olivia Grégoire is now in a position much more exposed to the media and should therefore see her ephemeral romance with Manuel Valls unearthed by the magazines in the coming weeks. While the former Prime Minister is the subject of ridicule for his insistent (and undoubtedly interested) promotion of Emmanuel Macron, we remember in particular that in November 2017, Olivia Grégoire had publicly defended him, when he was trying to carve out a place of choice within the majority.
When Olivia Grégoire defended Manuel Valls
In 2017, Manuel Valls, just removed from Matignon, was jostled in the legislative elections in Evry. After being freshly welcomed into the Macronist ranks – he wanted the LREM nomination in the legislative elections, but had not obtained it – the former Prime Minister narrowly won the election, with a few hundred votes against Farida Amrani , of rebellious France, in a deleterious climate in his former stronghold. A few weeks later, Olivia Grégoire then stepped up, assuring on Radio Classique that her “colleague” was “rather well integrated”. “What we see from the outside is not what I live inside, Manuel Valls is doing very well”, she added then, when we spoke to her about a “politically isolated” politician after his experience of power and his departure from the PS.
The couple Olivia Grégoire – Manuel Valls however separated after only a few months, in the summer of 2018, before the former mayor of Evry flew to Spain and Barcelona, with the result that we know … The supposed relationship of the former Prime Minister with the wealthy Spanish heiress Susana Gallardo Torrededia will put a stop to this parapolitical adventure. Since then, Olivia Grégoire has moved on: the different portraits of the new government spokesperson indicate that she is now in a relationship with Philippe Aubry, “specialist in cinema special effects”. Lon July 27, pregnant with 5 month, she was vaccinated in front of the cameras by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran himself, to reassure on the effects of the vaccine against Covid during pregnancy.
Olivia Grégoire, experienced spokesperson?
Olivia Grégoire will not be totally helpless at the spokesperson for the Borne team. The former Secretary of State, who presented herself in 2017 as a businesswoman and a representative of civil society. A former collaborator of Alain Madelin, she worked in the government’s general information service under Jean-Pierre Raffarin, when Jacques Chirac was at the Elysée. She then joined the cabinet of Xavier Bertrand when he was Minister of Health. She also does not hide her friendship with Edouard Philippe.
Olivia Grégoire was also spokesperson for the LREM group in the Assembly when she was a deputy, punctuating the work in committee or in session with her square, firm, unadorned interventions. Because when she entered the deep end of politics, after defeating the right in the 12th district of Paris, hitherto held by Philippe Goujon, Olivia Grégoire did not hesitate to present herself as a “woman with a strong grip “, who has known the experience of adversity. A “fighter” temperament, as she said on the set of France 24 the day after her election.
Olivia Grégoire, a path strewn with obstacles
Olivia Grégoire’s journey has indeed “not been paved with roses” in her own words. Born on September 30, 1978 in Paris, the new government spokesperson went to Sciences Po and then to ESSEC. She was director of sustainable development in several advertising agencies. After a period of unemployment, she finally founded her own influence strategy firm, Olicare, to support leaders in their strategic choices.
“I experienced unemployment, the prud’hommes, I set up my box”, she also confided to the Obs after her victory in the legislative elections five years ago, to defend her legitimacy and warn that she would keep his freedom of thought in a very disciplined macronist group. “Do you think that at 38 I’m going to put the finger on the seam of the pants? Between boot and rebellious, there is room for maneuver, there are not only two boxes otherwise I don’t know where I’m going to sit.” Let’s bet that to relay the word of the executive, the room for maneuver will be further reduced.