Stéphane Séjourné

Stéphane Séjourné (French pronunciation: [stefan seʒuʁne]; born 26 March 1985) is a French lawyer and politician of Renaissance who has been serving as Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal since 2024.

Séjourné was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019, where led Renew Europe, a liberal pro-European parliamentary group, from 2021 to 2024. He was an adviser to Emmanuel Macron during his ministerial tenure and advised him during his 2017 French presidential election campaign. In 2022, he became general secretary of Renaissance.

Early life and education

Born in Versailles, Séjourné grew up in Madrid and Buenos Aires and later did an Erasmus exchange program in Granada.

Stéphane Sejourné lived in a civil union with Gabriel Attal, a French politician serving as the Prime Minister of France since January 2024. In 2018, Attal was outed on Twitter by his former École alsacienne classmate Juan Branco.

Early career

After working in the office of Jean-Paul Huchon at the Regional Council of Île-de-France from 2012 to 2014, Séjourné became an adviser to Minister of the Economy and Finance Emmanuel Macron.

When Macron became president in the 2017 elections, Séjourné came along as a political adviser, working alongside Alexis Kohler and Ismaël Emelien. He then took a six-month-long leave of absence to lead LREM’s campaign for the 2019 European elections.

Political career

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–2024

Since entering parliament, Séjourné has been serving on the Committee on Legal Affairs (2019–2022), the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (2020–2022) and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (since 2022).

In addition to his committee assignments, Séjourné is part of the Parliament's delegations for relations with Mercosur and the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. He is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Artificial Intelligence and Digital, the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights, the MEPs Against Cancer group and the European Internet Forum.

Following the resignation of Dacian Cioloş in 2021, Séjourné announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.

In May 2022, Séjourné – together with Patrick Mignola for the Democratic Movement (MoDem) and Gilles Boyer for Horizons – negotiated the agreement leading to the creation of Ensemble, a coalition of the parties forming the presidential majority, including on the financial distribution between them.

At the September 2022 convention of Renaissance, Séjourné was the only candidate in the running to succeed the party’s chair Stanislas Guerini and was elected as new leader.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2024–present

On 11 January 2024, Séjourné was appointed minister of Europe and foreign affairs in Gabriel Attal's government. His first official trip abroad was to Germany for a meeting with his counterpart Annalena Baerbock.

Séjourné criticized South Africa's ICJ genocide case against Israel, saying "To accuse the Jewish state of genocide is to cross a moral threshold."

Political positions

Séjourné is considered a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron.

In an article published by Le Journal du Dimanche in February 2021, Séjourné opposed the proposed Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI).

In 2024, Séjourné committed not to work with the far-right in the next European Parliament and refused to align with the nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.

Personal life

Séjourné is gay and was in a civil union (PACS) with Gabriel Attal, who has been serving as Prime Minister of France since January 2024. The relationship had ended by 2022.

References