Jean-Louis Marie Borloo was born in Paris, his parents were Lucien Borloo born in Guéméné-sur-Scorff and Mauricette Acquaviva from Marseille of Corsican origin. Borloo gained his Baccalauréat in 1969, in the Philosophy stream. In 1972 he took a first degree in Law and Philosophy at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, in 1974 a further degree in History and Economics at Paris X Nanterre, and in 1976 an MBA at HEC Paris.[2]
Political career
Of Picard origin, Borloo began his career as a lawyer in the 1980s. He became president of the Valenciennes Football Club in 1986. In 1989, he was elected mayor of Valenciennes as an Independent, winning over 76 per cent of the vote.
It was on the Radical-UMP ticket that Borloo was re-elected as a deputy in 2002 and 2007. He was Minister for the City and Urban Renewal in the Jean-Pierre Raffarin governments between 2002 and 2004, Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Cohesion under Raffarin between 2004 and 2005, and finally Minister for Employment, Social Cohesion and Housing in the Dominique de Villepin government between 2005 and 2007. In that role, he introduced a five-year plan of social cohesion, which was centered around three axes: equal opportunity, housing and employment.
In April 2011, Borloo left the UMP in protest at Sarkozy's rightward swing. He announced plans to set up a "republican, ecologist, and social alliance", with a view to becoming a candidate in the 2012 presidential election.[4] However, he decided not to run as President of France.
In September 2012, he created the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), trying to unify all the Centrist parties, while the UDI still allies with the UMP.
Despite being a leader in the UDI, Borloo was not involved in the 2014 local elections, mentioning health reasons, such as frontal acute pneumonia and sepsis. On 6 April 2014, Borloo announced in a letter to the executives of the UDI that he would resign immediately from "every political term and position" due to his health concerns.[citation needed]
References
^A Directory of World Leaders & Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments: 2008–2009 Edition. Rockville, MD: Arc Manor, 2008. 154.