Laurent Fabius

Laurent Fabius (French: [lɔʁɑ̃ fabjys]; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician who has served in a number of capacities, most recently as president of the Constitutional Council from 2016 to 2025. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. Fabius was 37 years old when he was appointed and is, after Gabriel Attal, the second youngest prime minister of the Fifth Republic.

Fabius was also President of the National Assembly from 1988 to 1992 and again from 1997 to 2000. Fabius served in the government as Minister of Finance from 2000 to 2002 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016.

Fabius was born in the affluent 16th arrondissement of Paris, the son of Louise (née Strasburger-Mortimer; 1911–2010) and André Fabius (1908–1984). He is the younger brother of Catherine Leterrier and François Fabius. His parents were from Ashkenazi Jewish families who converted to Catholicism. Fabius was raised a Catholic; he has three sons, David (born 1978) with his partner Christine d'Izarny Gargas, Thomas (born 1981) and Victor (born 1983) with his spouse, Françoise Castro.

Fabius' received secondary education at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly and Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he was a pupil of Donald Adamson. Fabius then went up to institutions that are training grounds for academics (École normale supérieure), and senior civil servants and executives (Sciences Po, École nationale d'administration).^{[citation needed]}

After his studies, Fabius became an auditor for the Council of State. A member of the Socialist Party (PS) since 1974, Fabius was first elected to the National Assembly in 1978 for the fourth constituency of Seine-Maritime. Fabius quickly gained entry to the circle of François Mitterrand, the leader of the party.

When Mitterrand was elected as President of France in 1981, Fabius was nominated as Minister of the Budget. Two years later, Fabius became Minister of Industry, and pursued the policy of "industrial restructuring". In 1984, in a government shake-up, Mitterrand chose Fabius as prime minister (choosing Fabius over Pierre Bérégovoy and Jacques Delors). At the age of 37 he was the youngest French prime minister since 1819.

Fabius advocated a new kind of French socialism, which accepted the market economy. It marked a shift away from traditional socialist concerns with state ownership and instead looked for ways to modernize industry, and increase productivity, even at the cost of some jobs. Fabius also worked to modernize the party's archaic structures. In social policy, a law of December 1984 replaced allowance for orphans with a family support allowance, and empowered family allowance funds to aid in recovery of child support when a parent fails to pay. The allowable income for recipients of the young child allowance was increased (July 1984) for families with three or more children. The Fabius Government also sought to reduce penalties on families with working mothers by substantially increasing the income ceiling for dual-income families receiving the young child allowance. A parental education fund was created (1985), which provided for payments to each person who stops work or reduces hours of work as a result of the birth of any child beyond the first two, for which the parent(s) is/are responsible. In 1985, as a means of upholding the rights of homosexuals, the penal code was amended to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of "moral habits" which included sexual orientation, which also secured the right to same-sex relationships.

A decree of 17 July 1984 set up an Immigrants' Council, which could be consulted on questions of concern to the immigrant population regarding living conditions, housing, work, employment, education, and training, as well as social and cultural activities. In November 1984, an allowance was introduced if the parent concerned had been employed for two or more years. Known as the "allocation parentale d'education," this allowance provided 1,000 francs per month for parents who decided to take two years of parental leave after the birth of their first child. The "allocation au jeune enfant," introduced in January 1985, was paid to all families at a flat rate for each child from the third month of pregnancy for nine months, regardless of the parents' income. Payment was to continue after this period for 8 out of 10 families for a further 32 months on a means-tested basis. In effect, this created a benefit for the first child in lower income families. The government, however, reduced the daily maternity allowance from 90% to 84% of the basic wage, while the reimbursement rate of so-called "comfort" medicinal products was also lowered.