A woman back in government, fifteen years later. Catherine Colonna, Minister Delegate for European Affairs at the end of Jacques Chirac’s second term between 2005 and 2007, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first government of Elisabeth Borne, this Friday. The announcement was made from the steps of the Élysée Palace by the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Alexis Kohler.

Catherine Colonna thus leaves her position as French Ambassador to the United Kingdom, which she had held since September 2019. Previously, between 2014 and 2017, she held the same position in Italy. For more than nine years (from May 1995 to September 2004), she had also been spokesperson for the Presidency of the Republic.

It was she whom Emmanuel Macron had chosen to represent France in London in the midst of Brexit, then now to occupy the functions of Minister of Foreign Affairs. His main file on the table will undoubtedly be that of the war in Ukraine and the many diplomatic consequences that this conflict entails, particularly vis-à-vis Russia.

9