Jean Castex: Mr. Deconfinement, Appointed Prime Minister

On April 2, 2020, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe appointed Jean Castex to the Ministry of Health to study deconfinement scenarios related to the Covid 21 epidemic.

Jean Castex is the grandson of Marc Castex, mayor of Vic-Fezensac from 1971 to 19891.

It was because the woman who was to become his wife, Sandra Ribelaygue, who is Catalan, that Jean Castex became Catalan.
In the last elections, Sandra Ribelaygue, was re-elected councillor with 97.29% of the votes in the municipality of Valcebollère, a small village located one hour from the municipality of Prades.

 

A busy career

A graduate of the IEP in Paris and a former student of the ENA in 1991, he became a referendary adviser and then master adviser at the Court of Auditors.

He then held the positions of Secretary General of the Vaucluse Prefecture and then President of the Alsace Regional Audit Chamber from 2001 to 2004.

From 2004 to 2006, he was Director of Hospitalization and Organization of Care at the Ministry of Solidarity and Social Cohesion, then from 2006 to 200, he was Xavier Bertrand's Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Health, then at the Ministry of Labor from 2007 to 2008.

In March 2008, he was elected UMP mayor of Prades, then in March 2010, regional councillor of Languedoc-Roussillon after leading Raymond Couderc's UMP-NC list in the Pyrénées-Orientales.

In November 2010, he replaced Raymond Soubie in the position of social affairs advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy in the Office of the President of the French Republic.

On 28 February 2011, he was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the Élysée Palace, a position he held until the end of President Sarkozy's term on 15 May 2012.

A candidate in the 3rd constituency of the Pyrénées-Orientales, he was defeated by the PS candidate, Ségolène Neuville, in the 2012 legislative elections.

In the municipal elections of March 2014, he was re-elected mayor of Prades in the first round, with 70.19% of the vote.

In March 2015, he was elected departmental councillor of the Catalan Pyrenees canton in tandem with Hélène Josende.

In September 2017 he was appointed interministerial delegate to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

During various election campaigns he has always been a strong supporter of the Catalan Yellow Train.

 

At the beginning of July 2020, Jean Castex was appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron, replacing Edouard Philippe.

Also to be seen in the department

Porté-Puymorens
Altitude 1600m – 2500m

placePorté-Puymorens - Pyrénées-Orientales 
label Ski and Snow  

La dalle gravée de Glorianes

placeGlorianes – Pyrénées-orientales 
label Archaeology and old stones  
Sorède, capitale du fouet et de la cravache

Sorède, capital of the whip and the riding crop

placeSorède - Pyrénée-Orientales 
label Made in Grand Sud  

La Maison des poupées Bella

placePerpignan - Pyrénées-Orientales  
label Museums & Collections  

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