Reshuffle: who is Aurélien Rousseau, our new Minister of Health?

“Intense emotion on taking up my duties as Minister of Health and Prevention. Immense gratitude for the work undertaken by François Braun. Proud to join a great ministry whose commitment and determination I know to ensure access to health for all”. It is with these words, published on his Twitter account, that Aurélien Rousseau wished to react to his recent appointment as head of the Ministry of Health.

At the head of ARS Île-de-France at the height of the health crisis

Aurélien Rousseau was born on June 25, 1976 in Alès in the Gard. He is 47 years old. He is a certified history-geography teacher and began his career in Bondy, in Seine-Saint-Denis. Between 2017 and 2020, he taught urban law within the “Territorial and urban strategies” master’s degree at the Urban School of Sciences Po.

His career in health began in March 2018 when Agnès Buzyn, then Minister of Health, entrusted him with the mission of steering consultation on human resources issues in hospitals. On July 25, 2018, Aurélien Rousseau was appointed Director General of the Île-de-France Regional Health Agency by the Council of Ministers. His main mission is to implement in the region the orientations of the Ma Santé 2022 plan, of which he is a member of the national steering committee. When he was in this position, he had to deal with two major crises in the spring of 2019: the strike movement in the emergency services and the management of the consequences of the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris.

But his biggest challenge will be the management of the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic. Indeed, at the start of 2020, ARS Île-de-France became one of the biggest players in the health crisis in the region most affected by the first wave, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, led by Olivier Véran.

Aurélien Rousseau must take measures to mobilize reinforcements from all over France, set up a logistics circuit to supply health establishments with masks. He must also manage the entire test system in the face of an explosion in demand. During the Ségur de la santé, he insisted on the need to reform the public health system by strengthening prevention to fight against social and territorial inequalities, which were accentuated during the epidemic.

An appointment that is already making people talk…

On July 7, 2021, he left his post at the ARS. Almost a year later (May 17, 2022), he was appointed chief of staff to Elisabeth Borne, who had just been appointed Prime Minister.

On July 20, 2023, he was appointed Minister of Health by Elisabeth Borne. His appointment is already talked about in the press because of the position of his wife, Marguerite Cazeneuve, deputy director of Health Insurance. Several media mention a risk of conflicts of interest.

A minister who had to deal with serious health problems

The minister has faced serious health issues in the past. In a book released last summer, La Blessure et le Rebond, he admits to having suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disease for which he was hospitalized in intensive care and remained paralyzed for several months. In this book, he also evokes the depression that fell on him at the end of the Covid crisis after 18 intense months spent at the head of ARS Île-de-France.