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French digital affairs secretary resigns to join Hamon’s campaign

The Socialist minister responsible for digital affairs Axelle Lemaire resigned on Monday, according to an interview published by French daily Libération. She wants to focus her energy on her campaign for France's upcoming legislative elections, and on that of presidential candidate Benoît Hamon.

Digital Affairs minister Axelle Lemaire in Paris on September 26, 2015.
Digital Affairs minister Axelle Lemaire in Paris on September 26, 2015. AFP/Dominique Faget
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“To be totally clear and transparent: I’m leaving the government,” Lemaire tells Libération.

“I think I’ve completed my mission in this administration,” she adds.

Lemaire, who is standing in France’s legislative elections in June, explains that she couldn’t juggle being a minister, a candidate and a mother all at once.

She also explains that her work was “incompatible” with her family life. “I’m the mother of three young children, the youngest of whom was born when I was minister.”

“I had to make a choice,” she says.

Joining Hamon's campaign

Lemaire, who recently joined Hamon’s campaign as the head of his “Innovation Mission 2025”, explains that she supports the Socialist candidate “because of the humility in his approach, as well as the ambition and authenticity of his platform.”

According to her, Hamon “is the candidate capable of proposing a constructive, alternative platform for the future.”

Socialists ‘trapped’

Lemaire expresses concern that “France is poised to make the same mistakes that led to Brexit in the UK, and the election of Donald Trump in the United States.”

“The binary choice between ‘establishment candidate’ and ‘anti-establishment candidate’ leaves little room for the emergence of other alternatives,” she says.

For this reason, she says the Socialist Party is “facing a trap”.
 

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