It is a former war prize of Emmanuel Macron who reaches a key position in the government. Olivier Dussopt was appointed Friday, May 20 by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, and the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, as Minister of Labour, Full Employment and Integration. He will also be in charge of pension reform.
A consecration for this defector from the Socialist Party (PS), who will have crossed the five-year term with as much discretion as loyalty to the Head of State. No offense to his former political family, who accused this relative of the slingers of treason during the mandate of François Hollande.
Olivier Dussopt, 43, will have finally spent five years at Bercy. When he arrived there in November 2017 as Secretary of State to the Minister for Action and Public Accounts, the ex-LR Gérald Darmanin, the PS accused him of having sold himself “for a dish of lentils” . It must be said that the former mayor of Annonay (Ardèche) until 2017, who was regional councilor for Rhône-Alpes then deputy for Ardèche, first had a classic career as a local socialist elected official.
Coming from a modest family, a graduate of Sciences Po Grenoble, the one who describes himself as a pure product of republican meritocracy had as mentors Benoît Hamon and Martine Aubry. In 2016, he took a step to the right by supporting Manuel Valls in the primary on the left. Tipped to enter the government in 2014, then in 2016, a fine connoisseur of local authorities, Mr. Dussopt will be rapporteur for two important texts of the mandate of François Hollande: the law of 2014 on the metropolises and that of 2015 redrawing the regions.
Austere look
In Macronie, he earned his stripes by carrying out the delicate reform of the public service with the unions. The text, which provides in particular for the increased use of contract workers, was voted on in the summer of 2019, without any major social upheaval.
Described as a hard worker, this minister with an austere look, with a trickle of voice and a jerky delivery will ultimately not implement the abolition of 120,000 civil servant posts promised in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron, and abandoned after the crisis of ” yellow vests”. But it is natural that he succeeds Mr. Darmanin during the July 2020 reshuffle, as Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts. The “whatever it takes” policy put in place to protect the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic has just started.
President of the microparty Territory of Progress, satellite of the presidential party, Olivier Dussopt was regularly cited as one of the members of the government appreciated by the Head of State. The latter had even mentioned him by name during the press conference detailing his presidential program on March 17.
