30 Facts About Laurent Fabius

Laurent Fabius was President of the National Assembly from 1988 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2000.

Laurent Fabius served in the government as Minister of Finance from 2000 to 2002 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016.

Laurent Fabius was president of the Constitutional Council from 2016 to 2025.

Laurent Fabius was born in the affluent 16th arrondissement of Paris, the son of Louise and Andre Laurent Fabius.

Laurent Fabius is the younger brother of Catherine Leterrier and Francois Fabius.

Laurent Fabius's parents were from Ashkenazi Jewish families who converted to Catholicism.

Laurent Fabius was raised a Catholic; he has three sons, David was born on 1978 and with his partner Christine d'Izarny Gargas, Thomas was born on 1981 and and Victor was born on 1983 and with his spouse, Francoise Castro.

Laurent Fabius' received secondary education at the Lycee Janson-de-Sailly and Lycee Louis-le-Grand, where he was a pupil of Donald Adamson.

Laurent Fabius then went up to institutions that are training grounds for academics, and senior civil servants and executives.

Laurent Fabius quickly gained entry to the circle of Francois Mitterrand, the leader of the party.

When Mitterrand was elected as President of France in 1981, Laurent Fabius was nominated as Minister of the Budget.

Two years later, Laurent Fabius became Minister of Industry, and pursued the policy of "industrial restructuring".

Laurent Fabius advocated a new kind of French socialism, which accepted the market economy.

The Laurent Fabius Government sought to reduce penalties on families with working mothers by substantially increasing the income ceiling for dual-income families receiving the young child allowance.

In employment policy, the Laurent Fabius Government introduced a number of measures designed to mitigate the effects of unemployment.

In 1985, the Laurent Fabius Government increased the wealth tax to provide subsidies for organisations providing basic services such as hot meals, agreed to make empty housing and surplus food stocks available, and decided to provide a basic allowance of 40 francs per day for some of the unemployed over the age of 50 who had been left out of the benefit scheme.

Laurent Fabius's government was accused of having knowingly let doctors give haemophiliacs transfusions of blood infected by HIV.

Laurent Fabius came to be seen as Lionel Jospin's rival to be Mitterrand's heir.

Laurent Fabius failed to win the First Secretaryship of the party in 1988 and 1990 in spite of Mitterrand's support.

Laurent Fabius used this dual role to successfully propose the establishment of The Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union - a conference of Members of Parliament drawn from parliamentary committees responsible for European Union affairs in each national parliament and Members of the European Parliament.

Laurent Fabius succeeded finally in becoming First Secretary of the party in 1992, but resigned after the Socialist disaster of the 1993 legislative election.

Laurent Fabius came back as president of the National Assembly in 1997, then as Minister of Economy and Finance in Lionel Jospin's cabinet between 2000 and 2002.

Laurent Fabius declared that his mind was changed about a number of matters and he joined the left-wing of the party.

Laurent Fabius went on to lead the rebel faction of the party advocating a no vote in the 2005 Referendum, and was seen as the spearhead of the whole no campaign in France.

Laurent Fabius was a candidate in the Socialist Party's primary to be the party's candidate in the 2007 presidential election, but finished third, behind Segolene Royal, the winner, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Laurent Fabius was re-elected to the National Assembly in the June 2007 parliamentary election.

On 17 May 2012, Laurent Fabius became foreign minister in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault, appointed prime minister by President Francois Hollande.

Laurent Fabius was chosen by President Francois Hollande to succeed Jean-Louis Debre as President of the Constitutional Council.

Laurent Fabius was replaced by his deputy Guillaume Bachelay in 2012.

Laurent Fabius has three children and was married to Francoise Castro from 1981 to 2002.