Manuel Valls

Returning as Overseas Territories Minister, Valls played a central role in negotiating the Bougival agreement defining a new institutional framework for New Caledonia. Six delegations signed it on 12 July 2025.

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Political responsibility

The FLNKS congress rejected the proposed Bougival agreement. Valls travelled to New Caledonia to try to restore consensus but failed to bring the FLNKS back to the negotiating table and chose to continue the timetable with the other signatories.

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The Tribunal de Cuentas imposed approximately €276,698 in penalties on Barcelona pel Canvi, Valls's electoral platform: €251,698 for a very serious offence involving third-party payment of expenses and €25,000 for exceeding the outdoor advertising limit.

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Spain's Tribunal de Cuentas identified nearly €189,500 in undeclared electoral spending in the Barcelona pel Canvi–Ciudadanos coalition's campaign and estimated that the statutory expenditure limit had been exceeded by approximately 71%.

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Less than three years after launching his Barcelona project, Valls left his council seat, explaining that this chapter had ended and moving back towards French politics.

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Valls left his French parliamentary mandate and national politics to seek the mayoralty of Barcelona, his birthplace, on a platform supported by Ciudadanos.

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Having entered the Socialist primary on the understanding that he would support its winner, Valls refused to sponsor Benoît Hamon and announced that he would vote for Emmanuel Macron, prompting accusations of reneging and a further crisis within the Socialist Party.

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Valls won the second round in Essonne's first constituency by just 139 votes. Farida Amrani alleged irregularities and referred the matter to the Constitutional Council.

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Directly implicated

The Valls government defended a constitutional amendment extending deprivation of nationality for certain terrorist offences. The proposal deeply divided the governing majority, particularly when it effectively distinguished dual nationals.

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The Valls government invoked Article 49.3 three times to pass the labour law despite opposition from part of the Socialist parliamentary group, amid demonstrations and major trade union mobilisation.

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Having used Article 49.3 six times as Prime Minister, Valls, now a candidate in the left-wing primary, proposed almost completely abolishing the constitutional mechanism, prompting accusations of inconsistency.

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Personally implicated

Valls declared his support for mayors issuing orders against the burkini and described the garment as incompatible with the Republic's values and an expression of a project to subjugate women.

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Personally implicated

At a rally, Valls claimed that Marianne was 'bare-breasted because she feeds the people' and not veiled because she was free, prompting political, feminist and historical criticism.

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Lacking a secure majority, Valls invoked Article 49.3 to make passage of the Macron law a matter of government confidence, allowing the bill to pass without a final vote on it in the National Assembly.

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Valls used a government Falcon jet to travel from Poitiers to Berlin for the Champions League final, accompanied by two of his sons. The official justification concerned a meeting with Michel Platini and sports diplomacy.

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As Interior Minister, Valls challenged several elements of Christiane Taubira's criminal justice bill, notably concerning reoffending, minimum sentences and alternatives to imprisonment, causing an open conflict within the government.

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As Interior Minister, Valls led a strategy enabling prefects to ban certain performances by Dieudonné because of risks of public disorder and infringements of human dignity.

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As Interior Minister, Valls continued evictions of Roma camps at a high rate and stated that Roma people were destined to return to Romania or Bulgaria, adding that integration could, in his view, concern only a minority of families.

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The removal to Kosovo of 15-year-old Leonarda Dibrani, after law enforcement officers collected her during a school trip, triggered a political crisis and administrative inquiries into the intervention.

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Filmed by Direct 8 while he was MP and Mayor of Évry, Valls asked for more 'white people', 'Whites' or 'Blancos' in the shot at a flea market, provoking controversy over his conception of urban social diversity.

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Personally implicated