Matthieu Orphelin

Matthieu Orphelin (born 3 December 1972) is a French politician who has been serving as a member of the French National Assembly since the 2017 elections, representing Maine-et-Loire.[1]

Matthieu Orphelin
Matthieu Orphelin in 2017
Member of the National Assembly for Maine-et-Loire's 1st constituency
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 June 2017
Preceded by	Luc Belot
Vice-President of the Regional council of Pays de la Loire
In office 2010–2015
Personal details
Born	3 December 1972 Saint-Nazaire, France
Political party	EELV (before 2017) En Marche! (2017–2019)
Other political affiliations	Political group: EDS (2020)
Education	École centrale de Nantes
Occupation	Engineer

Early life and education

Orphelin is an engineer at the École centrale de Nantes, an environmental specialty, and a doctor of energy at the École des Mines de Paris. He is a specialist in energy policies and the fight against climate change and has also been involved in politics, where he is particularly involved in education, training and solidarity issues.[2]

Orphelin spent most of his career at the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME),[3] where he was chief of the economy, evaluation and observation department and then director of research and development. prospective. He also acted as adviser to Michèle Pappalardo, then as chief of staff to Chantal Jouanno and Philippe Van de Maele.

From 2007 to 2010, Orphelin was part of the representatives of the State College in the groups of Grenelle de l'environnement and works in particular on the building plan and on the tax measures whose contribution energy climate. He also led work on energy poverty, the ecological transformation of the economy and training for the jobs of tomorrow.

Political career

Top of Europe Ecology – The Greens for the 2010 regional elections in Maine-et-Loire, he is elected and appointed Vice President of the Regional council of Pays de la Loire, Chairman of the Education and Learning Commission.[4]

During the 2011 Ecology Party presidential primary, for a presidential election 2012 , he worked in Nicolas Hulot's campaign team.

Member of the National Assembly

Orphelin was elected to the French National Assembly on 18 June 2017, representing the 1st constituency of Maine-et-Loire.[5]

In the National Assembly, Orphelin serves on the Committee on Sustainable Development, Spatial and Regional Planning. He is also a member of Joint information mission on plant protection products.[6] In addition to his committee assignments, he chairs the France-Vanuatu Friendship Group[7] and serves as secretary of the France-India Friendship Group.[8]

In September 2018, Orphelin supported Barbara Pompili's candidacy for the presidency of the National Assembly. The following month, he launched a collective called "Accelerating the Ecological and Solidarity Transition!", which brought together more than 120 MPs from six of the seven parliamentary groups of the Assembly. Led by Orphelin, Aurélien Taché and Hugues Renson, a group of around 20 members of the LREM parliamentary group was established in late 2018 with a "wish to express a humanist, social and ecological sensibility and to better raise citizens' concerns"; the initiative was widely interpreted as the launch of a left-wing faction within the group.[9]

Orphelin left the La République en marche group on 6 February 2019, explaining having "done everything possible [...] to carry high the ecology", without success, invoking in particular insufficient progress on the "climatic, ecological and criticizing "certain choices" of the government. He is close to the former Minister of Ecological and Solidary Transition Nicolas Hulot, who resigned in 2018 for the same reasons.[10]

In May 2020 he became one of the two initial presidents of the Ecology Democracy Solidarity National Assembly group, which was mainly made up of defectors from LREM.[11]

Political positions

Ahead of the 2020 Paris municipal election, Orphelin endorsed Cédric Villani as candidate for mayor.[12]

In July 2019, Orphelin voted against the French ratification of the European Union’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada.[13]

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Orphelin backed a public petition calling on consumers to “not buy any gifts” from Amazon for the holidays in 2020.[14]

See also

• 2017 French legislative election

References

1. "M. Matthieu Orphelin". National Assembly (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2017.
2. Matthieu Orphelin. "Pour une tarification écologique et solidaire de l'énergie" (in French). Le Monde. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
3. Dominique Pialot. "Matthieu Orphelin, ancien de l'Ademe et de la Fondation Hulot, candidat LREM à Angers" (in French). latribune.fr. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
4. "Matthieu Orphelin : 15ème vice-président du Conseil Régional". EELV (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2017.
5. "Elections législatives 2017". Ministry of the Interior (in French). Retrieved 19 June 2017.
6. "Composition de la mission d'information commune sur les produits phytopharmaceutiques". National Assembly (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2017.
7. "Composition du groupe d'amitié France-Vanuatu". National Assembly (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2017.
8. "Composition du groupe d'amitié France-Inde". National Assembly (in French). Retrieved 5 November 2017.
9. Mathilde Siraud (20 December 2018), Des députés LaREM s'organisent pour peser Le Figaro.
10. "The MP Matthieu Orphelin, close to Nicolas Hulot, announces that he leaves the group LREM" (in French). France Info. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
11. "Assemblée nationale : Matthieu Orphelin affirme avoir subi des "pressions"". RTL.fr (in French). Retrieved 21 May 2020.
12. Pauline Théveniaud (3 July 2019), Municipales à Paris : Matthieu Orphelin soutient le «beau binôme» Villani-Mahjoubi Le Parisien.
13. Maxime Vaudano (24 July 2019), CETA : qui a voté quoi parmi les députés Le Monde.
14. Pierre-Paul Bermingham (17 November 2020), Paris mayor and French MPs call for an Amazon-free Christmas Politico Europe.