Early beginnings In the early 1970s, Rebsamen was an active member of the
Revolutionary Communist League, a militant group. He left in 1974. Following the
1989 French municipal elections, Rebsamen was elected president of the Socialist group in the Dijon municipal council. In 1994, Rebsamen was elected to the
Regional Council of Burgundy, where he held a seat until 2001. In 1997 he ran in the
legislative election in the
1st constituency of
Côte-d'Or, but was defeated by
Robert Poujade, the mayor of Dijon. In the same year, he was named National Secretary of the Socialist Party at the
Brest Congress, and became the party's deputy head, under his friend
François Hollande. Rebsamen was elected in March 1998 as the general councillor of the
canton of Dijon-5, winning 51.5% of the vote and defeating the incumbent, Pierre Barbier of the
Rally for the Republic (RPR).
Mayor of Dijon In the
2001 municipal election, Rebsamen became the first left-wing candidate to be elected mayor of Dijon since 1935, winning 52.1% of the vote and defeating Jean-François Bazin (RPR). That year he also became president of
Grand Dijon, a post he held until 2014. He ran again for the legislature in
2002, but lost to
Bernard Depierre of the
Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), who succeeded Poujade. He was re-elected general councillor in March 2004, this time winning 62.5% of the vote. Rebsamen directed the Socialist Party's campaign for the March 2004 regional and cantonal elections, and in 2005 ran the campaign for a "Yes" vote in the
French referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. In June, then in August 2006, he asked
Jack Lang and
Dominique Strauss-Kahn to withdraw their candidacy for president of France, and explicitly supported
Ségolène Royal, becoming co-director of her campaign, along with
Jean-Louis Bianco. Rebsamen was re-elected mayor of Dijon in the
2008 municipal election, winning 56.2% of the vote to François-Xavier Dugourd's 36.4%. His plan to build a
tramway in Dijon was unanimously approved by the Greater Dijon Community Council on 15 May 2008. From 2007 to 2008, Rebsamen was a director of Dexia-Crédit Local de France, resigning a few days before it went bankrupt.
Senator for Côte-d'Or, 2008–2014 In the
2008 elections, Rebsamen became a Senator, the first Socialist to represent Côte-d'Or in the
Senate since 1948, and then resigned as general councillor. In the Senate, he was a member of the Committee on Finance. Following the
Senate elections of 25 September 2011, and the election of 1 October, Rebsamen was chosen to lead the
Socialist group in the Senate. In the Socialist Party's
2011 primary, Rebsamen endorsed
François Hollande as the party's candidate ahead of the
2012 presidential election. In 2012, Rebsamen opposed a government effort tried to prevent politicians from holding multiple posts, and said that if forced to choose between continuing as Senator or as mayor of Dijon he would opt for the latter. Following the
2014 municipal election, Rebsamen was elected to his third term as mayor with 52.8% of the vote, defeating
Alain Houpert (UMP).
Minister of Labour, 2014–2015 On 2 April 2014, Rebsamen was appointed Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue in the government of
Prime Minister Manuel Valls. This appointment led Rebsamen to resign from the mayorship of Dijon. Upon the appointment of the second Valls government, his ministerial portfolio was expanded to include vocational training. While at the Labour Ministry, he was nicknamed "Minister of Unemployment" owing to the high jobless rate characteristic of Hollande's presidency.
Return to local politics On 30 July 2015, after the death of Alain Millot, who had succeeded him as mayor of Dijon, Rebsamen announced that he would run for the post again. On 10 August 2015, he was re-elected mayor and Grand Dijon (renamed
Dijon Métropole in 2017) president, and a few days later he resigned his ministerial post. On 6 December 2016, he was offered the post of
Minister of the Interior, but refused as he preferred to remain mayor of Dijon. Ahead of the Socialist Party's
2018 convention in Aubervilliers, Rebsamen publicly endorsed
Stéphane Le Foll as candidate for the party's leadership. After being diagnosed with cancer, Rebsamen announced on 10 April 2018 that he would not be able to serve as mayor of Dijon and president of Dijon Métropole during his treatment, and thus appointed
Nathalie Koenders as interim mayor and
Pierre Pribetich as interim metropolis president. Ahead of the
2022 presidential election, Rebsamen endorsed
Emmanuel Macron and left the Socialist Party. In May 2022, he launched the Progressist Federation (
Fédération progressiste, FP), a new centre-left party. The party joined the
Ensemble coalition and saw two of its members
Christine Decodts in
Nord and
Benoît Bordat in Côte-d'Or win a seat in the National Assembly in
2022, joining the
Renaissance group.
Minister for Territorial Development, 2024–2025 After having resigned as mayor of Dijon on 25 November 2024, Rebsamen was appointed Minister for Territorial Development and Decentralisation the following 23 December in the newly-formed government of Prime Minister
François Bayrou, marking his return to national politics. ==Honours==