Aurélien Rousseau, an ex-communist appointed director of Elisabeth Borne’s cabinet

“It’s a little scary but when you have to go, you have to go!” ». At 46, the State Councilor Aurélien Rousseau becomes the director of the cabinet of Elisabeth Borne. This enarque (Willy-Brandt promotion) is a regular in crises which, twice, caught up with him, barely named. Boss of the Ile-de-France regional health agency, from 2018 to 2021, he must manage the Covid on the front line. In 2015, he arrived at the cabinet of Manuel Valls in Matignon, as deputy director, just one month before the attacks of November 13.

Originally from Alès, a small working-class town in the Cévennes, he completed a master’s degree in medieval history in Paris before teaching for two years at the Jean-Renoir high school in Bondy, in Seine-Saint-Denis. He militates in the Communist Party, in the wake of a beloved grandmother, Jeanne Boyer, from the Protestant bourgeoisie, passed to communism with the Resistance. In 2001, he joined the mayor of Paris, in the cabinet of the communist Pierre Mansat, deputy mayor, before joining that of Bertrand Delanoë.. There he meets Nicolas Revel – whom he succeeds today at Matignon – and Véronique Bédague-Hamilius – herself probed, a few weeks ago, by Alexis Kohler, to be Prime Minister.

When the latter, who, when she headed the cabinet of Manuel Valls at Matignon, announces that she has chosen “a communist” as deputy, the prime minister of François Hollande nearly strangles himself. “After all, what matters is that he has left-wing values,” he finally concedes. Aurélien Rousseau remains at Matignon on the arrival of Bernard Cazeneuve, as social adviser, before being appointed to the Monnaie de Paris, in 2017.

“Guarantor of social dialogue”

At the Elysée, where he is called« agile » (Macronian anointing par excellence), he enjoys a flattering reputation. “It’s not a disconnected, confided an adviser, he can shake the coconut tree. » Appointment to a reputable Prime Minister ” within reason “ et “cold” of this warm and funny man, elected from a small town in the Gard (Saint-Hilaire-de-Brethmas), is skilful, at the time of delicate reforms. “He is a guarantor of social dialogue”observes Yves Colmou, former adviser to Valls at Matignon, who boasts of a “round man”who “really knows how to listen and move position”.

During his schooling at the ENA, a Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological disease, left him completely paralyzed for months, with a long stay in intensive care at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital. He pulls out a book, Boucle d’or, published in 2016 by Editions du Passage. This father of three children is also the husband of Marguerite Cazeneuve, ex-technical social protection adviser to Edouard Philippe at Matignon, and current director of the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM).

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