Europe 1 with AFP 16:39 p.m., December 20, 2023

Agnès Firmin Le Bodo takes the helm of the Health Ministry "on an interim basis" after having been a solid number 2 for the two previous ministers, François Braun and Aurélien Rousseau, who announced his resignation on Wednesday for disagreement over the immigration law.

Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, a dispensing pharmacist by profession, has held the position of Minister Delegate for Territorial Organisation and Health Professions since July 2022, alongside one and then the other. Pragmatic, not seeking the light without running away from it either, she led the difficult gestation of the bill on the end of life for the Ministry of Health, under the watchful eye of the Élysée.

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Invested in the Bioethics Bill and Assisted Reproduction for All

Generally speaking, "she is a woman in the field, who knows her issues" and "who is quite straightforward," an official of a professional federation in the health sector told AFP. "I will continue to continue the work undertaken alongside Aurélien Rousseau, in a spirit of construction in the service of the health of the French people," he promised on the social network X.

I will continue to continue the work undertaken alongside Aurélien Rousseau, in a spirit of construction in the service of the health of the French people. Let's keep moving forward.

— Agnès Firmin Le Bodo (@agnesfirmin) December 20, 2023

Before joining the government, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, 55, entered the National Assembly in 2017, elected in the constituency of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, in Seine-Maritime. As a member of the Social Affairs Committee, she was involved in the bioethics bill and assisted reproduction for all. In particular, she chaired the special committee dedicated to this text.

During the Covid-19 crisis, when the Assembly was in slow motion, she returned to her pharmacy in Le Havre: "My place was first and foremost there". His political commitment goes back a long way. From the age of 15 in Le Havre, in 1983, she campaigned in support of Antoine Rufenacht, the Gaullist baron who would eventually wrest this communist stronghold in 1995.

A "great honour to have served the Republic in these functions"

She joined the municipal council in 2001, before taking up the positions of deputy and then first vice-president of CODAH, the Le Havre urban community. Co-founder of the centre-right Agir party in 2017, with several elected officials including the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade Franck Riester, she gave up her LR card in 2018, opposing Laurent Wauquiez's line.

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Married and mother of one child, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo is passionate about sports, having practiced skating and tennis. Aurélien Rousseau, in his first message on X after his resignation, wished "the best" to this "woman of talent and commitment", while thanking Emmanuel Macron and Elisabeth Borne despite the brutal separation: "I owe the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister the immense honour of having served the Republic in these functions".