Habib began his political career on the municipal council of
Mourenx, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, to which he was elected in the
1989 French municipal elections. He was then appointed deputy mayor by the town's
Communist mayor André Cazetien. In March 1992, Habib was elected to the
General Council of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, representing the Canton of
Lagord. Habib then resigned from the general council of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in accordance with the law on the accumulation of political mandates. Habib was re-elected to the National Assembly in the
2007 and
2012 legislative elections as well as the mayoralty of Mourenx in the
2008 municipal elections. In March 2014, he announced his candidacy for mayor of Pau at the head of a united electoral list of major left-wing parties. Habib was defeated in the second round of the
2014 municipal elections, winning 37% of the vote against
François Bayrou's 63%. Nevertheless, the Socialist did gain a seat on the city's municipal council, but resigned several months later to run in a municipal by-election in
Sarpourenx on 21 June 2015. He was elected to the city's municipal council and has served there since. He endorsed
Manuel Valls in the
2017 Socialist presidential primary and was one of his eight campaign spokespersons. Habib was again re-elected in the
2017 legislative elections and was one of three deputies from the Socialist group to vote yes on a motion of confidence in the
Second Philippe government. During the
2022 legislative elections, Habib opposed the
NUPES electoral alliance between the Socialists and
La France Insoumise and instead called for his party to unite behind President
Emmanuel Macron of
La République En Marche. As a result, the governing
Ensemble! coalition did not run a candidate against him in his re-election race and Habib returned to the National Assembly with 66.55% of the vote in the second round against Jean-François Baby of NUPES, who won 33.45%. Habib sits on the
National Defence and Armed Forces Committee, for which he served as vice-president from 2 October 2020 to 8 July 2021. He has previously been a member of the
Social Affairs Committee, the
Economic Affairs Committee, the
Foreign Affairs Committee, the
Finance, General Economy and Budgetary Monitoring Committee, the
Constitutional Acts, Legislation and General Administration Committee and the now-defunct Economic, Environmental and Territorial Affairs Committee. He is also vice-president of the Israel Friendship Group and was one of the only Socialist signatories of a letter to President
Nicolas Sarkozy opposing potential French recognition of the
State of Palestine. ==References==