Jean-Marc Ayrault

Jean-Marc Ayrault (born 25 January 1950) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2012 to 31 March 2014. He later was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He previously was Mayor of Nantes from 1989 to 2012 and led the Socialist Party group in the National Assembly from 1997 to 2012. Born in Maulévrier in Maine-et-Loire, Jean-Marc Ayrault is the son of Joseph Ayrault, from Maulévrier, formerly an agricultural worker who was subsequently employed in a textile factory, and of Georgette Uzenot, a former seamstress who later became a full-time housewife.

His early schooling was at the St Joseph Catholic primary school in Maulévrier, after which, between 1961 and 1968, he attended the Lycée Colbert, in Cholet. He subsequently studied German at the University of Nantes. In 1969/70 he spent a term at the University of Würzburg in Bavaria. He graduated with a degree in German in 1971 and in 1972 obtained his graduate teaching diploma.

He stayed in the Nantes area for his probationary teaching year which was undertaken in Rezé. Between 1973 and his election to the National Assembly in 1986 he worked as a German language teacher in nearby Saint-Herblain. During his youth, Ayrault was a member of a movement of young Christians in rural areas.