She is one of the big winners from this reshuffle. After six months at the State Secretariat for Youth, Prisca Thevenot was appointed government spokesperson on Thursday. A new stage for this “walker” from the start, accustomed to the sets of continuous news channels.
The one who describes herself as “a pure product of the republican school” succeeds Olivier Véran in a position very exposed to the media, in particular to report on the Council of Ministers and answer all-round questions from the press. A source within the presidential party told AFP that “Attal adores” Prisca Thevenot and “pushed” her for spokesperson. But who is this Macronist, described by some as “zealous” and by others as “discreet”, even “self-effacing”?
Daughter of Mauritian immigrants
Born in Strasbourg, the daughter of Mauritian immigrants, Prisca Thevenot grew up in the working-class Moroccan district of Stains (Seine-Saint-Denis), “on the outskirts of the periphery”. She studied in a priority education zone (ZEP), before a major business school, EM Lyon, and a career in the private sector, notably in consulting firms.
Member of En Marche! from the launch of the Macronist party, she attempted to run for the 2017 legislative elections in Stains, but was beaten in the second round by the communist Marie-George Buffet.
Former spokesperson for LREM
In June 2022, Prisca Thevenot was elected deputy for Hauts-de-Seine, after having scoured the news channel sets continuously, as spokesperson for the presidential party. The Renaissance candidate had no difficulty winning in the eighth constituency of Hauts-de-Seine and its wealthy towns of Meudon, Chaville and Sèvres. The outgoing Macronist deputy, Jacques Maire, denounced a parachuting, an “injustice”.
During her mandate, she highlighted “women’s health” in her commitments, pleading for better support from “puberty to menopause”, in order to put an end to the “invisibility of women’s bodies”. In the Social Affairs Committee of the Assembly, she was “one of the elected officials who defend women’s rights”, recognizes the socialist Arthur Delaporte. But on the sets, “she is one of the most zealous in defending the government line,” he points out.
Founder of a political incubator
Prisca Thevenot also created an association in 2017, Civil Impact, a “political incubator” to “learn to get involved” and “renew the political class”. Married and mother of two children, she cites “French gastronomy” and “long dinners to remake the world” among her interests.
When she was Secretary of State for Youth and Universal National Service, Prisca Thevenot had, among other things, to put to music “the universal national service” (SNU), which at this stage only concerns young volunteers, and of which the The possible generalization arouses strong resistance. The Secretary of State had come forward, on September 19, by evoking an “obligation” and “a generalization” of the SNU, before being corrected the next day by… the government spokesperson Olivier Véran, on this project still outstanding.
In the Borne government, Prisca Thevenot was “discreet, erased” by the omnipresence of Gabriel Attal in Education. “It was complicated to exist,” says a Macronist source. She will inevitably be much less discreet with her new position. At least on Wednesday, the day of the traditional Council of Ministers.