Cécile Duflot

Cécile Duflot (; born 1 April 1975) is a French non-governmental organisation (NGO) leader and former politician. She has been a government minister, a member of the National Assembly, and political party leader.

She served as the National Secretary of the green parties (2006-2010) and Europe Ecology – The Greens (2010-2012). Following the victory of François Hollande in the 2012 presidential election, she was appointed Minister of Territorial Equality and Housing in the Ayrault Cabinet from 2012 to 2014. Until June 2012, she was Party Secretary (i.e. leader) of Europe Ecology – The Greens, a position she held from November 2006; with Jean-Luc Bennahmias, she was the only Green leader to have served two consecutive terms. In May 2012, she announced her resignation from this role.

On 5 April 2018, she announced her departure from politics to lead Oxfam France starting on 15 June. In 2022, she was appointed to the National Consultative Ethics Committee (Comité consultatif national d'éthique) for life sciences and health.

Personal life Duflot was born in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Val-de-Marne, the eldest daughter of a railway unionist and a physics and chemistry teacher (who was herself also a unionist). Duflot spent her childhood and adolescence in the district of Montereau-Fault-Yonne, specifically in the Montereau-Surville district, where she attended the Lycée André-Malraux, before returning to her native town, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, in the early 1990s. She is a town planner by profession, a graduate of the ESSEC Business School (French Business School), and holds a master's degree in geography. and the Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux ("Birds' Protection League").

A divorcée, Cécile Duflot is the mother of three girls and a boy in a step-family. Also, she shared the life of Jean-Vincent Placé, a French Senator and once Secretary of State.

Political career

After joining The Greens in 2001, she stood in the municipal elections at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges that same year. She became an opposition municipal councillor in the town in June 2004.

On 16 November 2006 she was elected National Secretary of the Conseil National Inter Régional, succeeding Yann Wehrling. The ticket earned 24.36%.

On 6 December 2008, introducing a motion synthesizing four of the six activists' voting slips three weeks earlier, she was re-offered the post of National Secretary of the Greens with 70.99% of the votes. With Jean-Luc Benhamias, she is the only secretary to be offered a second consecutive term,

During her first term, she worked to establish Europe Écologie She is not eligible as a candidate for this now, preferring instead to focus on her mandate as National Secretary.

In 2010, she along with Monica Frassoni, Renate Künast, and Marina Silva were named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers, for taking Green mainstream.

In August 2014, she voiced criticisms of the French government, particularly of President François Hollande, stating that, "...wanting to be a leftist president, he never found his social base nor his supporters. This is not a question of temperament, rather it is the result of a succession of often unexpected choices, which are sometimes inconsistent with each other."

She is a member of the Advisory Panel of DiEM25.

As Minister

The position of Minister of Housing was offered to her in the Ayrault government of the Hollande presidency, which began in May 2012. One of her tasks was to promulgate a law on social housing. Her first effort, announced 11 September of that year, failed in October, causing embarrassment to the Prime Minister. The loi Duflot replaced the :fr:Loi Scellier on 18 January 2013.

The loi Alur (Accès au logement et urbanisme rénové) restricted landlord-tenant relations in exchange for favourable financial treatment. It passed on 20 February 2014.

After politics In June 2017 she was for the Green Party a candidate for Parliament. She was eliminated in the first round.

Since June 2018 she is the executive director of the NGO Oxfam France, member of the confederation Oxfam International.

She is a member of the board of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University for 2020-2024.

On 22 April 2022, she was appointed by decree to the National Consultative Ethics Committee for Life Sciences and Health on the proposal of the Defender of Rights

Main political offices

The French political system allows one person to hold multiple political offices. The electoral promise of François Hollande to terminate what is known as Dual mandate has not, as of March 2014, been fulfilled. Minister of Territories Equality and Housing : May 2012 – March 2014. Deputy for the 6th electoral district of Paris : Since June 2012 Regional councillor of Île-de-France, and chairwoman of the Europe Ecology – The Greens Group : 2010–2012 (Resignation). Deputy-mayor of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges : 2008–2011 (Resignation). Municipal councillor of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges : Since 2004. Reelected in 2008. National Secretary of Europe Ecology – The Greens : 2006–2012 (Resignation).