Background
Born in Paris, Harlem Jean-Philippe Désir is the son of a Martinican father and an Alsatian mother.
Member of the European Parliament politician
Born in Paris, Harlem Jean-Philippe Désir is the son of a Martinican father and an Alsatian mother.
He studied at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, where he earned a license in philosophy in 1983.
Previously he was First Secretary of the French Socialist Party. He was the first president of the French anti-racist organisation e between 1984 and 1992. 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.
Harlem Désir was elected for the first time to the European Parliament in 1999.
He was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. On 9 April 2014, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls appointed him Secretary of State for European Affairs.
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 Martine Aubry on 16 September 2012, he again became First Secretary of the Socialist Party by interim.
He remained head of the party until April 2014, when he stood down after being appointed State Secretary for European Affairs.
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.
Party leader
He became the first black person to lead a major European political party.
He is 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.