Aurélien Rousseau

Aurélien Rousseau is a French civil servant and politician who served as Minister of Health and Prevention in the government of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne from July to December 2023. A member of Place Publique, he has represented the 7th constituency of Yvelines in the National Assembly since July 2024.
From May 2022 to July 2023, Rousseau served as Borne's chief of staff; he resigned from that position effective on 17 July 2023. On 20 December 2023, he resigned as Health Minister in response to the passage of a controversial immigration bill backed by his government.

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Early life and education

Rousseau grew up in Saint-Hilaire-de-Brethmas, Gard.

Career

In 1999, Rousseau began his career as history and geography teacher at a lycée in Seine-Saint-Denis.
From 2015 to 2017, Rousseau served as deputy director of the cabinet and advisor on social affairs to successive Prime Ministers Manuel Valls and Bernard Cazeneuve.
From 2017 to 2018, Rousseau served as director of Monnaie de Paris.
Rousseau won plaudits for running the public health authority in the Paris region during the COVID-19 pandemic in France.

Minister of Health, July–December 2023

In October 2023, Rousseau participated in the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron.

2024 legislative election

In the 2024 French legislative election, he stood under the label of Place Publique as a candidate of the New Popular Front in Yvelines's 7th constituency, winning the seat from Renaissance's Nadia Hai. In an interview with L'Express, he said he was stunned even more by Macron's denunciations of the New Popular Front's program than by the threat of the far-right, arguing that the president's statements were sowing the seeds for the success of the National Rally by giving it "ideological legitimacy" due to his relativisation of the united left and far-right. Rousseau also reaffirmed that he would support all "republican candidates" opposed to the RN in the second round.

Personal life

Rousseau is married to Marguerite Cazeneuve. In 2020, the couple's son was born.