Early functions In 1977, he assumed the position of Deputy Mayor of
Lorient; one year later, at the age of 30, he became a member of the
National Assembly for
Morbihan. He served until 1993 and then again from 1997 until 2007. He became Mayor of Lorient in 1981 and retained the office until 1988; he also served as
Secretary of State for the Sea under President
François Mitterrand from 1991 to 1992. In the 2004 regional elections, leading the
Bretagne à gauche, Bretagne pour tous (PS-PCF-PRG-Les Verts-UDB) list, he won 58.66% of the vote in the runoff and a total of 58 seats in the
Regional Council of Brittany. He thus became
President of the Regional Council of
Brittany. In October 2010 he became President of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR).
Minister of Defence, 2012–2017 in 2015, with
Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs Le Drian was nominated to serve as
Minister of Defence under President
François Hollande on 16 May 2012. Ahead of the Socialist Party's
2017 primaries, Kanner endorsed
Manuel Valls as the party's candidate for the
presidential election later that year. By 23 March 2017, he eventually endorsed
Emmanuel Macron's candidacy for President of the Republic. After Macron won the
presidential election, he appointed Le Drian as Foreign Minister in the
First Philippe government.
Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, 2017–2022 , 2021 Le Drian remained in office when the
Second Philippe government was inaugurated; on 8 March 2018, he officially resigned from the Socialist Party. In August 2019, Le Drian called on
Hong Kong authorities to renew talks with
Hong Kong protesters to find a peaceful solution to the then ongoing crisis. On 9 October 2019, Le Drian condemned the unilateral
Turkish operation in Northeastern Syria and declared that
Turkey's military incursion "is jeopardising the anti-Islamic State coalition's security and humanitarian efforts and is a risk for the security of Europeans". , 2018 In 2020, Le Drian created the new movement
Territories of Progress with fellow minister
Olivier Dussopt. The announcement of the
AUKUS security pact between the
United States, the
United Kingdom, and
Australia in September 2021 sparked a period of diplomatic tensions in
French-American and
French-Australian relations. The French government received official notification from
Australia that the
Attack-class submarine project, involving a A$90 billion Australian contract to buy 12 French submarines, In a joint statement, Le Drian and
French armed forces minister Florence Parly expressed disappointment at Australia's decision to abandon their joint submarine program with France. Le Drian further stated in a radio interview that the contract termination was a "stab in the back". Despite tension in the past, France had never before withdrawn its
ambassador to the United States. , 2021 In November 2021, in an interview with the newspaper
Le Monde, Le Drian expressed concern about the economic predation weighing on African countries, pointing the finger at China and Russia: "Our competitors have no taboos or limits." According to Le Drian, Europeans must at all costs rebuild their relationship with the African continent.
Personal Envoy for Lebanon, 2023–present In 2023, President Macron named Le Drian as his personal envoy for
Lebanon. ==Awards and honours==