Manuel Valls

Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (French: [manɥɛl kaʁlos vals ɡalfɛti], Catalan: [mənuˈɛl ˈkaɾloz ˈbaʎz ɡalˈfeti], Spanish: [maˈnwel ˈkaɾlos ˈβals ɣalˈfeti]; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who, most recently, served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hollande.

Born in Barcelona to a Spanish father and a Swiss mother, Valls was mayor of Évry from 2001 to 2012 and was first elected to the National Assembly of France for Essonne in 2002. He was regarded as belonging to the Socialist Party's social liberal wing, sharing common orientations with Blairism. He was Minister of the Interior from 2012 to 2014 and Prime Minister from 2014 to 2016. He was a candidate in the Socialist Party primary for the 2017 French presidential election, losing the Socialist nomination in the second round to Benoît Hamon. Following his defeat, he endorsed Emmanuel Macron despite having previously pledged to support the Socialist candidate.

In the 2017 French legislative election, Valls was re-elected by a narrow margin as Member of Parliament. He then left the Socialist Party and joined La République En Marche group (LREM) in the National Assembly, although he did not formally join the party. In October 2018, he resigned from the National Assembly to run for mayor in the 2019 Barcelona City Council election supported by the centrist Ciudadanos party. He came in fourth in the election. Valls is also a past opponent of the Catalan independence movement.

In 2022, Valls attempted to return to the National Assembly as a member of LREM for the fifth constituency for French residents overseas. but was unsuccessful after coming third in the vote.