“I just want to remind Mr Valls that he took part in the Left’s destruction under François Hollande, betrayed the Socialist party and its candidate Benoît Hamon in 2017, that he went into exile in Spain before getting thrown out; that he sought to rally behind Mr Macron and wasn’t elected. You should be ashamed. You are the worst of traitors... You are worse than a turd…”
On the morning of December 24, France Inter listener Jean-Noël roasted Manuel Valls on air for 30 seconds before being cut by production, exploiting the radio station’s offer to give listeners a chance to pose a question to their guest.
Mr Valls had been invited on the show in his new position as overseas minister in the cabinet of France’s latest prime minister, François Bayrou.
He was due to outline a roadmap of government action in Mayotte, the French territory devastated by cyclone Chido.
Changing allegiances
Jean-Noël instead aired the thoughts of many on the Left in France: that Valls is little more than a political weathercock, an opportunist ready to change tack for his personal advancement.
There may be some truth behind it, as one unflattering video montage, posted hours after his latest job offer, highlighted.
It compiled, in 220 seconds, a string of assertions Mr Valls had made over the past seven years, each contradicted seconds later by a different claim or stance. It touched on all of the points Jean-Noël had mentioned.
What they say about him
The whole of France has become more right wing. But the most striking is that the Socialist Party has moved towards the right, that François Hollande has moved towards the right, and that you – I do not wish to insult you but I think – have moved to the right as well.
Writer Jean d’Ormesson in 2016 when Mr Valls was prime minister
He had the guts to leave the comfort of his family nest in the Marais to move into a shabby concrete building and deal with the suffering of the people living on the housing estates.
Carlos Da Silva, three times reserve candidate on Mr Vall’s list in Evry
Manuel has one great quality: he's not afraid of situations, people or analysis. That's his Hispanic temperament, for whatever it’s worth.
Aquilino Morelle, a friend and an aide to former prime minister Lionel Jospin
Focusing on betrayal only, however, misses a key part of Mr Valls’ attraction in French politics.
He represents a particular segment of the Socialist Party that is a bastion of fiercely Republican, secular and rather pro-business voters with the potential to lean towards the Right.
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Manuel Valls' background
Manuel Valls was born on August 13, 1962 in Barcelona to a Spanish father, a painter, and a Swiss-Italian mother, a teacher.
Both parents lived in France at the time, but Valls said they wanted their son to be born in Barcelona. He has a sister, Giovanna.
Valls grew up in the Marais, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, in an apartment that was also his father’s painting workshop. He was naturalised French at 20.
“When I was 16, I had to get my two-year carte de séjour,” he told Le Parisien in 2015, explaining what prompted his decision to become a French citizen.
“I realised then that I was not French. I was interviewed in a police station... and had to answer questions on my parents and my private life. It was closer to an interrogation.”
Valls’ binational identity went on to become central to his political ideas; a defence of multiculturalism and a respect for Republican values.
He studied law at the Sorbonne, where he was a member of Unef, the largest national student union in France.
Here, he was noticed by members of the Socialist Party and joined, although “more a choice by default than a massive adherence to party doctrine,” he said.
Early political career
Mr Valls started his political career alongside Michel Rocard, France’s prime minister from 1988 to 1991, as his adviser on student issues. He became prime minister Lionel Jospin’s communications adviser in 1997.
He became a mainstream figure as mayor of Evry (Essonne), an office he held from 2001 to 2012 over three consecutive terms.
He saw in Evry a melting pot of the Paris suburbs, a form of multiculturalism that bordered or slipped into communitarianism and ended with violence.
A report filmed him touring a farmers’ market in 2009 where he is heard lamenting the city does not have enough white people.
This is the second central axis of Valls’ political ideas. His solution came in one word: security. He increased police numbers and funding, as well as cameras, and slowly earned the nickname ‘The Nicolas Sarkozy of the Left’.
He was appointed interior minister by François Hollande in 2012 before being offered the job of prime minister in 2014, Hollande gambling on Valls’ popularity in polls and tough stance on security to regain the trust of the French people.
His tenure was marked by the Charlie Hebdo and Nice terrorist attacks, along with his fight to have Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, a stand-up comedian convicted for hateful speech and antisemitism, banned from performing shows.
Often branded a trublion de la gauche (Left-wing troublemaker), Mr Valls is behind the concept of the ‘two, irreconcilable Lefts’, a bon mot he pronounced in February 2016 during a political meeting.
His theory is that France’s Left is ideologically split between two camps: one pragmatic and open to reforms, the other deeply wedded to the socialist class struggle. It has become a recurrent point of reference for politicians, observers and commentators of French politics.
Mr Valls lost in the Socialist party primary of 2017 to Benoît Hamon, who ultimately finished fifth with 6.36% of the national vote.
That is partly due to what some see as Mr Valls’ first big political betrayal.
Backing Emmanuel Macron
Upon losing, he initially announced he would vote for Hamon, but eventually asked voters to endorse Emmanuel Macron instead, hoping his support would earn him a cabinet position.
Mr Macron was unmoved.
Mr Valls then tried his luck in Spain, running for mayor in Barcelona in 2019 but finishing fourth.
He had pledged his French political career was over and that he would stay in Barcelona no matter the result. Nevertheless, he came back to France in 2021 and ran for the legislature in 2022 for Mr Macron’s party – but lost.
After that, he was hired as a political consultant on TV shows and wrote several op-eds in French newspapers.
Social media and satirical newspaper Le Gorafi – France’s version of The Onion or Daily Mash – has long used Valls as an easy joke every time a new cabinet is announced, forecasting his return through any tactic possible.
…Until it finally happened in December.
“I was a prime minister, a minister, an MP, a mayor…This gentleman [Jean-Noël] did not mention [any] of my successes,” Mr Valls hit back on France Inter.
“It is during the difficult moments of our nation, with its fractures and divisions, that people with experience should give their all for their country.
“I am a Republican and a patriot who loves this country profoundly.”
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