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François Claude Pierre René Baroin (born 21 June 1965) is a French politician and lawyer who served as Finance Minister from 2011 to 2012, following a stint as Budget Minister in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon. A member of The Republicans (LR), he was a long-time ally of Jacques Chirac and has been Mayor of Troyes in Champagne since 1995.

Baroin was born in the 12th arrondissement of Paris to an upper-class family. His father Michel Baroin was a student friend of Chirac’s who went on to become a leading freemason, chairman of retailer Fnac and the insurer GMF, and a powerful local politician.

Baroin studied at Collège Stanislas de Paris before moving to ISG Business School and Panthéon-Assas University.

Baroin started his career as a political correspondent for Europe 1 from 1988 until 1992.

In 1992, at Chirac’s behest, Baroin joined his party Rally for the Republic (RPR). He became a member of the National Assembly in the 1993 elections – where he served on the Committee on Legal Affairs – and the mayor of Troyes, a mid-sized city South-Est of Paris, two years later.

Baroin was appointed Chirac’s campaign spokesman in the 1995 French presidential election. Following the elections, he became first state secretary and government spokesman under Prime Minister Alain Juppé and then, after a reshuffle, a political aide to the president.

Returning to parliament, Baroin was a member of the National Assembly's Finance Committee (1997-2001), the Committee on Cultural Affairs (2001-2002) and the Committee on Legal Affairs (2002-2005). He also served as the Assembly's vice-president between 2002 and 2005.

In the government led by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Baroin served as Minister for Overseas Territories from June 2005 to March 2007 and was briefly Minister of the Interior from March to May 2007. He replaced Nicolas Sarkozy on 26 March 2007 as Interior Minister when Sarkozy left the Government to pursue his presidential candidacy. During his time as Minister of the Budget in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from 2010 until 2011, Baroin successfully managed controversial dossiers such as wealth tax reform, the reduction of civil servants and the abolition of Sarkozy’s controversial tax cap for the rich.

On 29 June 2011, Baroin was appointed Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry in Fillon’s cabinet, replacing Christine Lagarde following her appointment as Director General of the International Monetary Fund. At the time, he was one of three candidates discussed for the role, alongside Bruno Le Maire and Valérie Pécresse. The appointment was seen as a tribute to Baroin’s presumed ability to sell austerity to the French public and to unpick the economic policy of the opposition Socialist Party. During his brief time in office, he chaired the meetings of the Group of Eight ministers of finance when France held the group's presidency in 2011.

From 2014, Baroin served as president of the France's Mayors Organization (Association des Maires de France), a powerful organization for more than 36,000 mayors in France. ...

Source: Article "François Baroin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.