The new Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition and Telecommunications took office on Monday, July 4. An overqualified economist, he is still unknown to the general public.
The young 39-year-old MoDem deputy already has a nice CV to display. However, it will have to prove itself to French start-ups and their audience.
An impressive career
Jean-Noël Barrot impresses with his pedigree. Son and grandson of deputies, politics is hereditary with him, and he has also been a deputy for Yvelines since 2017. He is also a graduate of HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris, and has taught at MIT, where he conducted research in innovation and corporate finance. He also holds a doctorate in economics, which makes him a true academic who has been able to apply the results of his research to his mandate as an MP, according to his mentors. It remains to be hoped that he uses the same ethics for his post as minister!
Politically, he inherits a centre-right and Christian Democrat affiliation. His positioning has surely won him the favor of Emmanuel Macron, and he has been approached in government for a while now. Barrot had also taken part in several missions under the previous presidential mandate. The new minister is also resolutely attached to the European project and affirms that he wants a ” European digital sovereignty “.
Evidence to do
We know very little about Jean-Noël Barrot’s commitments to digital technology. His background in economics is certainly impressive, and his political career is well underway, but what about his positions on start-ups, new technologies, the promotion of innovation or the digital transition?
It is with start-ups that the new minister will have to assert himself. The President of the Republic said he wanted to reach 100 unicorns (a unicorn is a start-up valued at more than a billion dollars) by 2030. He also announced that he wanted to accelerate the digitization of institutions or learning coding in college. All these projects represent a challenge of which the new minister will have to show himself capable.
Source : The echoes
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