Thomas Cazenave (French pronunciation:[tɔmakaznav]; born 6 March 1978) is a French civil servant and politician of the Renaissance party who served as Minister in charge of Public Accounts in the government of successive Prime MinistersÉlisabeth Borne and Gabriel Attal from 2023 to 2024.
From December 2016 to June 2017, he was Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic and from November 2017 to November 2019, he was the interministerial delegate for public transformation.
Cazenave then announced the creation of an opposition group, of four elected LREM and autonomous councillors distinct from that from Nicolas Florian's list.
Within the National Assembly, he was a member of the Finance Committee.
Early life and education
Cazenave was born on 6 March 1978 in Bordeaux.[1] The rest of his family has always lived in the Bordeaux region, in particular his grandmother living in Bordeaux-Bastide whom he frequently cites to signify his roots in Bordeaux.[2]
Cazenave attended school first in Floirac then in Bordeaux, at the François-Mauriac high school in the Bastide district, where he obtained the scientific Baccalauréat.[3] He continued his studies there in the D2 preparatory class at the Lycée Gustave-Eiffel, and at the same time in a DEUG in economics and management at Montesquieu University
In September 1998, Cazenave joined the l’École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay[4] to follow the dual training of the economics-management department.[5] In the 3rd year, he passed the external competition for the aggregation of economics and management. In the 4th year he completed a master's degree in economic analysis and policy from the Paris School of Economics.
Cazenave graduated from Sciences Po[6] and was admitted following the 2004 competitive examinations, he trained at the Ecole nationale d’administration in Strasbourg from 2005 to 2007.[7] During his training at the ENA, he did a 6-month internship at the town hall of Bordeaux, in the office of the mayor, Hugues Martin [fr] who acted as the interim mayor for Alain Juppé.[8]
In 2011, Cazenave briefly worked as deputy director of Human Resources at Orange France.[9]
In 2012–2015, Cazenave was deputy general manager of Pôle emploi, in charge of the “strategy, coordination and institutional relations” department.[11][12]
Cazenave remained a teacher at the University of Paris I and at Sciences Po Paris, where he co-directed the executive master's degree in public policy management until 2016.[13]
Political career
In February 2016, he joined Emmanuel Macron at the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Digital, as deputy chief of staff. He was a supporter of the “En Marche” movement launched by Macron, which in April that year became the “La République en marche (LREM)". In September 2016, within the same ministry, he assists the Secretary of State for Industry, Christophe Sirugue, as his chief of staff.[14]
In December 2016, Cazenave replaced Boris Vallaud as Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, under the mandate of President François Hollande.[15][16][2]
As a close ally of Macron, Cazenave participated in the development of his presidential program.[8] After the 2017 French presidential election, he was appointed to the Council of Ministers on 22 November 2017, as inter-ministerial delegate for public transformation, placed under the authority of the Prime MinisterÉdouard Philippe.[17]
Cazenave resigned from his government post and placed himself on leave from the finance inspectorate in November 2019[18] to devote himself to the municipal elections of 2020 in Bordeaux.[19]
In 2021, with a view to preparing LREM's program for the 2022 presidential election, he was responsible for leading the working group on the reorganization of administrations.[20]
In parliament, Cazenave was a member of the Finance Committee. In this capacity, he served as the parliament's rapporteur on 2023 legislation aimed at financing the energetic renovation of public buildings.[21]
In addition to his committee assignments, Cazenave was part of the French-Québec Parliamentary Friendship Group, the French-Senegalese Parliamentary Friendship Group, and the French-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Group.[22] He also headed the National Assembly's delegation to local authorities and decentralization.[23]
Municipal elections in Bordeaux, 2020
In July 2019, Cazenave received the nomination of LREM for the municipal elections of 2020.[24] Until then living between Paris and Bordeaux, he settled in his native city of Bordeaux[8] and launched his campaign at the head of the “Bordeaux Renewal” movement.[25] On 7 January 2020, he unveiled his first proposal.[26] He won 12.69% of the vote in the first round of the 2020 municipal elections on 15 March 2020 and was placed in 3rd place after the ecologist Pierre Hurmic Pierre Hurmic.[27]
Between the two rounds, Cazenave joined the candidacy of outgoing mayor Nicolas Florian.[28] The list thus created finished in second place and Thomas Cazenave announced the creation of an opposition group, comprising four elected LREM representatives, autonomous and distinct from that from Nicolas Florian's list.[29]
^« Cazenave Thomas », dans Fabien Cardoni, Nathalie Carré de Malberg, Michel Margairaz (dir.), Dictionnaire historique des inspecteurs des finances, 1801-2009, Paris, Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France, 2012 (lire en ligne).
