Manuel Valls

Manuel Carlos Valls is a French politician and the current Prime Minister of France. He has been the Prime Minister of France since 31^st March 2014. A member of the Socialist Party, he was the Minister of the interior from 2012 to 2014 before becoming the Prime Minister of France. He has also been the Mayor of Evry from 2001 to 2012 and was first elected to the National Assembly of France in 2002. Regarded as Socialists Party’s social liberal wing, he is known for sharing common orientations with Scandinavian style democracy and Blarism. He has also hold several important positions in his political career and he was the National Secretary of the French Socialist Party with responsibility for communications (1993-1994 and 1995-1997), First Secretary of the Val d'Oise department Socialist Federation (1990-2000) and National Secretary of the French Socialist Party with responsibility for organisation (2003-2004).

Born on 13^th August 1962 in Barcelona, he was born to Xavier Valls and Luisangela Galfetti. His father was the Barcelona born painter and in 1955, he won the prize for best still life in the third Spanish-American Art Biennial inaugurated by Franco. Manuel Valls was born in Barcelona and lived there and later moved to France as a teenager. Valls completed his education as a history graduate from Université Paris I-Tolbiac. Later in 1980, at the age of 17he joined the French Socialist party supporting Michel Rocard. And later while studying history, he became a member of the UNEF-ID, a progressive students union. After completing his education, he started to focus in politics and being a member of Socialist Party, he held many important positions. He was appointed as the Parliamentary attaché to the MP for the 1st Ardèche constituency, Robert Chapuis (1983-1986) and later in 1986, he became the Ile-de-France Regional Councillor (1986-2002). Apart from being the Ile-de-France, he was also the Special Adviser to the Prime Minister's Office (1988-1991). In 1990, he became the First Secretary of the Val d'Oise department Socialist Federation (1990-2000) and he maintained this position till 2000. In 1991, he was appointed as the Deputy Inter-ministerial Delegate to the Winter Olympics in Albertville (1991-1993) and later from 1993-94 and 1995-97, he was appointed as the National Secretary of the French Socialist Party with responsibility for communications. In 1998, he was appointed as the Vice-Chairman of the Ile-de-France Regional Council (1998-2002). He was elected as the Mayor of Evry (2001-2012) and he maintained this post till 2012. In 2002, he also became the Deputé (MP) for the 1st Essonne constituency (since 2002, reelected in 2007 and 2012) and was later appointed as the National Secretary of the French Socialist Party with responsibility for organisation (2003-2004). In 2008, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Evry-Centre-Essonne Urban Community, (2008-2012). In 2009, Valls announced his intention of running the Socialist Presidential Primary in 2011 for the 2012 election and later on 7^th June 2011, he confirmed his candidacy for Socialist primary. Later in March 2014, following major losses to centre-right and extreme-right political parties in French municipal elections, President Francois Hollande appointed Valls to the post of Prime Minister. He replacedJean-Marc Ayrault who had resigned earlier that day The Valls Cabinet was formed on 2 April 2014, consisting of 16 ministers from the Socialist Party and one minister from the Radical Party of the Left.After the 2016 Nice attack, he was criticised for saying that "France will have to live with terrorism." French citizens booed him when he joined the memorial for the victims, yelling "murderer" and "resign" at him before the minute of silence for the dead began.

In 1987, Valls married Nathalie Soulié, with whom he had 4 children before divorcing. On 1 July 2010, he married Anne Gravoin, a violinist and winner of the Conservatoire de Paris' prestigious Premier Prix for Violin and Chamber Orchestra.Owing to his family background, Manuel Valls is fluent in French, Spanish, Catalan and Italian, and is distantly related to the Marquesses del Bosch de Arés.