Early beginnings

At the age of sixteen, Bertrand volunteered for the Rally for the Republic (RPR) and quickly went into politics.

In 1992, Bertrand led the campaign for the 'no' to the Maastricht Treaty in his department, the Aisne in the region of Picardy. He was at the time assistant to the mayor of Saint-Quentin, Aisne. He was one of the pioneers of the 'Saint-Quentin beach', an event similar to Paris-Plage. From 1997 to 2002, he was parliamentary assistant to Jacques Braconnier, Senator for the Aisne, and he was elected to the National Assembly on 16 June 2002 for the 18th legislature (2002–2007), representing the second constituency of the Aisne Department.

In 2003, Alain Juppé, President for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), put him in charge of leading the debate and explaining the subject of pensions reform during a "Tour of France". He was chosen to defend this draft bill in the National Assembly. At the same time he was part of the 'Club de la boussole,' a group of deputies who declared their loyalty to then-President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Career in government

During this period, Bertrand received favourable attention in the right-wing political milieu. On 31 March 2004, when Raffarin appointed his third government, Bertrand was named Junior Health Minister for Health Insurance. Under his Senior Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, he led the reform on health insurance. Later on, he pronounced himself strongly in favour of a European Constitution for the referendum on 29 May 2005.

After the majority of the French electorate answered "no" to the referendum, Raffarin resigned as Prime Minister. Under his successor Dominique de Villepin, Bertrand became the Senior Minister for Health, when Douste-Blazy was reappointed Foreign Affairs Minister. His mandate as Health Minister was marked by the chikungunya epidemic and the law against smoking in public places, ratified in 2004.

Bertrand announced his support to UMP presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy on 29 September 2006. He was named Sarkozy's official spokesperson on 15 January 2007. He quit the government on 26 March to devote himself fully to the campaign. On 18 May 2007, he was named Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Solidarity in the Prime Minister François Fillon's government.

On 19 June 2007 Bertrand was appointed Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Solidarity in Fillon's second government after the first one had handed in its resignation the day before. He later served as Minister of Labour, Employment and Health from 2010 to 2012.

Later career

Following the 2012 French legislative election, Bertrand announced his candidacy for the post the UMP parliamentary group's chair. Having been endorsed by François Fillon, he lost an internal vote against Christian Jacob.^[4]

In the 2015 regional elections, Bertrand won over Marine Le Pen and became the president of the Regional Council of Hauts-de-France.^[5]

Amid the Fillon affair, in March 2017, Bertrand joined Valérie Pécresse, Christian Estrosi and others in calling for Alain Juppé to replace François Fillon as the party's candidate in the 2017 French presidential election.^[6][7]

In 2020, Bertrand publicly expressed interest in challenging incumbent President Emmanuel Macron in the 2022 French presidential election.^[8][9] By early 2021, Betrand was widely tipped by French and international media to be the center-right's candidate.^[10][11] According to 2021 polls, he would be in 3rd position behind Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. At the party's 2021 congress, however, he only came in fourth after Éric Ciotti, Valérie Pécresse and Michel Barnier; he subsequently endorsed Pécresse.^[12]

In the 2021 regional elections, Bertrand was re-elected. He obtained 52.37 percent of the vote in the Hauts-de-France region, against 25.65 percent for Sébastien Chenu of the National Rally.^[13]

In late 2021, Bertrand launched Nous France, a conservative movement.^[14] Ahead of the Republicans' 2022 convention, he endorsed Bruno Retailleau as the party's chairman.^[15]

Domestic policy

Bertrand is considered as representative of France's moderate right.^[16] He represents a line of common-folk conservatism, away from the Parisian elites, speaking frankly and in simple language. He was the best-placed traditional conservative in opinion polls for the 2021 Republican congress,^[17] but ended up in fourth place.

In 2013, Bertrand led a group of fellow UMP politicians who joined forces with Europe Ecology – The Greens in trying to force a constitutional review of a new law introduced by the Socialist Party which expanded government powers to monitor phone and Internet connection data. However, in a blow to the campaign, UMP parliamentary group leader Christian Jacob later wrote to his colleagues that the group would not seek a legal review.^[18]

In 2014, Bertrand advocated a "rewrite" or "repeal" of the law opening marriage to same-sex couples, indicating to Valeurs actuelles: "I can't resign myself to seeing the rules of filiation turned upside down to this extent. I am against adoption by homosexual couples, PMA assisted reproductive technology and of course GPA surrogacy."^[19] He reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage in 2017.^[20]

Ahead of the 2022 elections, Bertrand defended liberal economic positions. According to Marianne magazine, he intends to position himself on the right of Emmanuel Macron. In particular, he wants to cut production taxes by half, believing that the measures undertaken in this direction by the government are insufficient. This project, which would represent a loss of 33 billion euros for the state, would be compensated "in particular by efforts on public spending"; it provides for a postponement of two years of the retirement age and a reform of the unemployment insurance system that would result in a tightening of the conditions of compensation for the unemployed.^[21] Has also promised the "re-industrialisation" of France and quotas on immigration.^[22] He has also run on an anti-technocratic message.^[23]

Foreign policy

In July 2014, Bertrand defended President François Hollande's decision to push ahead with delivery of a Mistral-class amphibious assault ship to Russia in defiance of calls by key allies, despite the Russo-Ukrainian War; the deal was later called off.^[24]

During his presidential campaign in 2021, Bertrand argued that France should reassert itself by leaving NATO’s integrated command.^[25]