Claude Bartolone

Claude Bartolone (; born 29 July 1951) is a French politician who served as President of the National Assembly of France from 2012 to 2017.

A member of the Socialist Party from 1974 to 2022, Bartolone was first elected to the National Assembly, representing the Seine-Saint-Denis department, in 1981. He served as Delegate Minister for the City in the government of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from 1998 to 2002, and he was President of the Seine-Saint-Denis General Council from 2008 to 2012.

Early life and education Bartolone was born on 29 July 1951 in Tunis, Tunisia. His mother was from Malta and his father from Sicily; both his parents were working-class. At the age of nine, he moved to Le Pré-Saint-Gervais in France and grew up in a council estate.

After he was encouraged by a teacher named Marie-Thérèse Thoullieux not to get a professional degree, Bartolone attended the Lycée Turgot in Paris. In the Socialist Party's 2011 primaries, he endorsed Aubry as the party's candidate for the 2012 presidential election.

Following the June 2012 parliamentary election, in which the Socialist Party won a parliamentary majority, Bartolone was designated as the Socialist candidate for the post of President of the National Assembly. In the vote, held on 26 June 2012, Bartolone was accordingly elected to the post, receiving 298 votes against 185 votes for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) candidate Bernard Accoyer, who held the post during the preceding parliamentary term.

UMP

185 38.30%

PS 127 49.22% 298 61.70%

PS 59 22.87%

PS 50 19.38%

PS 22 8.53%

From 2012 to 2017, Bartolone served as President of the National Assembly of France. Thus, he lived in the Hôtel de Lassay. Ahead of the party's 2017 primaries, he endorsed Manuel Valls as its candidate for the presidential election later that year.

Controversy In April 2013, Bartolone received a menacing letter containing ammunition powder, suggesting he should stop supporting same-sex marriage.

When President François Hollande gave a public speech in 2016 honoring the centennial of François Mitterrand, Bartolone walked out; shortly before, Gérard Davet and François Lhomme from daily Le Monde had quoted Hollande in their book, “A President Shouldn’t Say That”, as saying that Bartolone “doesn’t have the stature to be prime minister” and “is not big on charisma.”

Personal life Bartolone is married, in a second marriage, with Véronique Ragusa, a parliamentary collaborator. He resides in a 320 square metre mansion on the outskirts of Paris.

Honours Foreign Honours Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (19/11/2012)