| Intro | French socialist politician |
| Is |
Politician Jurist Lawyer |
| From |
France Canada |
| Type |
Law Politics |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 18 October 1974, Ottawa |
| Age: | 45 years |
| Star sign | Libra |
| Residence | London |
Axelle Lemaire (born 18 October 1974) is a French Socialist politician who currently serves as a Secretary of State in the French Government.
In 2012, she was elected as Deputy for the Third constituency for French overseas residents in the National Assembly of the French Parliament.
In May 2014, Prime Minister Manuel Valls appointed her to the French Finance Ministry as minister responsible for Digital Affairs.
Education and personal life
Lemaire was born in Canada to a French mother and a Quebecois father. After being brought up in Hull, Quebec where she attended Collège Saint-Joseph de Hull, Lemaire lived as a teenager in Montpellier.
She read Modern Literature and Political Science at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, before completing degrees in Law at Panthéon-Assas University (DEA, 2000) and King’s College London (LLM, 2003). Lemaire subsequently taught legal studies at university level and worked in a law firm, before working at the House of Commons as a researcher for the former Labour MP and Minister, Denis MacShane.
Mrs Lemaire lived in London with her husband and two children from 2002 until 2014 before relocating to Paris.
Political career
Lemaire served as Secretary of the French Socialist Party (PS) in London from 2008 until her election to the National Assembly in 2012. According to Le Point, she turned down a ministerial post in Jean-Marc Ayrault’s second government having no desire to leave London being the mother of two young children. She has served as Chair of the UK-France Parliamentary Friendship Group.
However she accepted appointment as Minister of State for Digital Affairs in Valls’ new government in April 2014.
Assembly Member
In 2012 Lemaire was returned as Deputy for one of the eleven newly created constituencies, each elected by French overseas citizens to the French National Assembly. The constituency she represented as inaugural Deputy includes all registered French citizens living in the ten countries throughout Northern Europe – namely, Iceland, Norway, Denmark (including the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Sweden, Finland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: on New Year’s Day 2011, it recorded 140,731 French citizens on its electoral roll, with the vast majority of these (113,655) living in the United Kingdom, which has the third largest French expat population in the world. Consequently, her election campaign received considerable attention at the time from the British press.
Having won 54.76% of the vote, during her term as Deputy she regularly appeared in the British media regarding French politics.
In May 2014, upon assuming French governmental ministerial office, Lemaire resigned her parliamentary seat being succeeded by Dr Christophe Premat.
Minister of State for Digital Affairs
Since joining the Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in Paris, Lemaire has been a leading proponent of net neutrality legislation.
She is involved in the French Tech movement, which unites French digital startups worldwide.