Harlem Désir

Early life and education

Born in Paris, Harlem Jean-Philippe Désir is the son of a Martinican father and an Alsatian mother. He grew up in a housing project in Bagneux, north of Paris.

Désir studied at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, where he earned a license in philosophy in 1983. Also in 1983, he emerged as a leader from that year’s social unrest in France and helped organize the March for Equality and Against Racism (the so-called March of the Beurs) that started in the immigrant neighborhoods outside Lyon and ended in Paris.

SOS Racism

Désir was the first president of the French anti-racist organisation SOS Racisme between 1984 and 1992. Under his leadership, the organization grew significantly in membership and acquired significant influence in French public life. Accused of misusing public assets from 1986 to 1987, he was sentenced to an 18 months suspended sentence and a 30,000 francs fine in 1998.

Member of the European Parliament, 1999–2014

Désir first became a Member of the European Parliament following the 1999 European elections. A member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group, he was re-elected in 2004 and 2009.

In his first parliamentary term from 1999 until 2004, Désir served on the Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and Energy. From 2004 to 2009, he was a member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. In this capacity, he served as the parliament’s rapporteur on the 2008 Temporary Agency Work Directive. In his last term, he joined the Committee on International Trade. He also served as deputy chairman of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group.

In addition to his committee assignments, Désir was a member of the parliament’s delegations for relations with India (2009-2014), the United States (2002-2004) and South Africa (1999-2002). From 2002 to 2004, he also served on the parliament’s delegation to the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union (ACP-EU).

Following the 2004 European elections, Désir became one of the vice-chairpersons of a newly established European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI), alongside Claude Moraes, Saïd El Khadraoui, Emine Bozkurt, Cem Özdemir and Lívia Járóka. He was also a member of the Capital Tax, Fiscal Systems and Globalisation Intergroup of the European Parliament, to whom was presented Denis Robert and Ernest Backes's book, Revelation$, in March 2001.

Desir is considered an ardent pro-European. He fought unsuccessfully in 2005 to convince the Socialist Party to back a new European constitutional treaty.

Ahead of the 2014 European elections, Désir was appointed to head the Socialist Party’s list for Ile-de-France. Following his resignation from the European Parliament, he was replaced by Christine Revault d’Allonnes Bonnefoy.

Leader of the Socialist Party, 2012–2014

In the 2011 Socialist Party presidential primary, Désir endorsed the campaign of Martine Aubry.

On 30 June 2011, he was the delegate first secretary of the Socialist Party during the Martine Aubry bid for the Socialist Party primary, who started her campaign for presidential election of 2012 on 28 June 2011. After the resignation of Aubry on 16 September 2012, he again became First Secretary of the Socialist Party by interim.

Endorsed by Martine Aubry and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault before the 2012 Party Congress, he was elected First Secretary of the party on 18 October 2012, fending off competition for the post from another veteran who has also been convicted of financial misconduct, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis. He became the first black person to lead a major European political party. At the time of his election, he had never been a minister or member of the national parliament.

Désir remained head of the party until April 2014, when he stood down after being appointed State Secretary for European Affairs. He was replaced by Jean-Christophe Cambadélis. His resignation partly explained with his attitude during the Dibrani case.

Minister for European Affairs, 2014–present

On 9 April 2014, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls appointed him Secretary of State for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Shortly after taking office, Désir and his Italian counterpart, Sandro Gozi, set out a list of priorities for the time after the 2014 European elections, saying the new European Commission should grant maximum flexibility within existing EU budget rules to countries undertaking growth-promoting investments and structural economic reforms. Désir also proposed creating a European savings plan to mobilize citizens' savings to invest in small business and priority infrastructure projects such as extending high-speed broadband and the transition to renewable energy.

On the sidelines of an informal U.N. General Assembly meeting on the rising threat of antisemitism in January 2015, Désir joined his German counterpart Michael Roth in appealing for U.N. member states to work together on an international legal framework that would make social network providers share responsibility for the use of their platforms to spread messages promoting violence; the French call for a radical shift in the way governments treat social networking companies such as Facebook and Twitter came two weeks after the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris.

Recognition

Personal life

Désir is a Roman Catholic.