Roselyne Bachelot

About Roselyne Bachelot

Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN is a French politician. She holds a PhD in pharmacy and her research works were focused on infrared spectrophotometry. Her research thesis topic was dealing with the influence of metallic atoms on the carbon-hydrogen links in complex molecules.

She was elected on several local mandates: member of the City Council of Angers, member of the departmental council of Pays de la Loire – of which she was Vice-President and President of the Commission on Environment and Land settlement. Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN created the Conservatory of the Loire River, of which she was President from 1992 to 2004 and ensured its inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

She was elected member of the French National Assembly in 1988, and was constantly reelected until 2012. She was also member of European Parliament from 2004 to 2007. During all her mandates, she focused her work on social issues: labor, employment, healthcare, disabilities, family, social security, elderly care.

She was Minister of Ecology & Sustainable development from 2002 to 2004 in the government of Mr. Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN, and led in particular the project of inscription of the Chart on Environment in the French Constitution. She also launched the First National Strategy of sustainable development and established a global regulatory framework for the protection against natural and technological risks – “ Bachelot bill” of July 2003.

As a Minister of Health, Sports, Youth and Associations from 2007 to 2010, and then Minister of Social affairs from 2010 to 2012 in the government of Mr. François FILLON, she led a major reform of the French healthcare system which led to the creation of Regional Health Agencies, the reform of the administrative organization of public hospitals, the regulation of grassroots medical institutions, and the implementation of many public health measures – “Hospital, patients, health and territories bill” of July 2009. She organized three large scale public audience events: the General States of the organization of healthcare services in 2008, the General States of bioethics in 2010, and the National Debate on elderly care in 2011.

As a proactive feminist militant, Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN is the founder of the National Observatory of gender equality and led the parliamentary works in order to include gender equality in the French Constitution. She was also the Chairman of several institutions, like the National Council of disabled people.

The French public opinion knows Mrs. BACHELOT in particular for her militant struggle against discriminations related to sexual orientation, topic on which she did not hesitate to voice her disagreement with her political family. Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN strongly supported the 1999 the Same Sex Civil Union Bill – called PACS, the 2013 same-sex marriage bill, and the exclusion of transsexualism from the list of psychiatric diseases.

She held several direction and animation positions in the center right-wing parties (Rassemblement pour la République – RPR, then Union pour un movement populaire –UMP- since 2002), and was one of the founding members of the UMP Party. She was appointed by Mr. Jacques CHIRAC to be his spokesperson during the 2002 Presidential campaign.

Specialist of issues related to the Middle East, she Chaired the Euro-Arab parliamentary association and conducted several missions in Iraq and Palestine. She was Vice-President of the Institute of international and strategic relations – IRIS, specialized in geostrategic issues.

She is still the President of the Rameau, a think tank she founded in 1997 which gathers experts from various political families aiming at studying social and societal issues.

Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN decided to put an end to her political carrier in 2012. She then joined CANAL + Group as a journalist: she participates in the daily talk show led by Ms. Laurence FERRARI, “le Grand 8” on D8 channel, and she makes a weekly TV chronicle on the information channel “I Télé”.

She is still very active in various associations: she is Honorary President of the fund Link Aides struggling against AIDS. She animates the association Music0Séniors, a charity organizing concerts for patients suffering from Alzheimer disease. She is the President of the Patronage Committee of the orchestra Orfeo 55 directed by Ms. Nathalie STUTZMANN and she is a sponsor of the AROP, the Sponsoring Association of the Paris Opera.

Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN is the author of several publications: “Deux femmes au royaume des hommes” (“two women in a men’s kingdom”) with the Communist philosopher Geneviève FRAYSSE (Hachette Littérature 1997); “Entre haine et amour” (“between love and hate”) (Plon 1999); “La défaite des maires” (“the defeat of the mayors”) (Carrière 2001); “Le combat est une fête” (“struggling is celebrating”) (Laffont 2006); “A feu et à sang” (“Fire and blood”) (Flammarion 2012). Her last publication is a biography of Verdi, “Verdi the lover”, launched on November 13th 2013 (Flammarion) and currently writes her memoires to be published in 2015. She also regularly writes chronicles and articles in several reviews and regularly publishes articles of musical analysis and critics on ForumOpéra.