Christian Jacob (born 4 December 1959) is a French politician who has been the president of the Republicans party since 2019. Over the course of his career, he held several cabinet positions, including as the Minister of French Civil Service in Jacques Chirac's second term as President of France. He served as the Member of the National Assembly for Seine-et-Marne's 4th constituency between 1995 and 2002, and then again between 2007 and 2022. He chose to not seek re-election in the 2022 French legislative election. Early career A farmer, Jacob served in positions of responsibility in farm trade unions, local, départemental, regional then national. He was the President of the CNJA (Centre National des Jeunes Agriculteurs) from 1992 to 1994. Political career Member of the European Parliament, 1994–1997 Jacob became a Member of the European Parliament in the 1994 elections. In parliament, he served on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the parliament's delegation for relations with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Career in government, 2002–2007 Following the 2002 elections, Jacob was appointed to the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. He first served as Minister Delegate in charge of the Family from 2002 until 2004. In 2004, he became Minister Delegate in charge of SMEs, Trade, Crafts, Liberal Professions and Consumer Affairs, which later became a fully-fledged ministry. In 2005, in the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, he was appointed Minister for the Civil Service. Member of the National Assembly, 2007–present In parliament, Jacob served on the Committee on Economic Affairs (2007–2009); the Committee on Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning (2009–2010, 2012–2017); and the Committee on Defence (2010–2012). When Jean-François Copé resigned from his position as chairman of the UMP group in the National Assembly to become the party's secretary general in late 2010, Jacob succeeded him after defeating Jean Leonetti. In 2011 Jacob caused controversy when he described Dominique Strauss-Kahn as an urban intellectual – a "bobo," short for "bourgeois-bohemian" – and said that Strauss-Kahn did not represent "the image of France, the image of rural France, the image of the France of terroirs and territories". Both French and foreign media interpreted this notion of rootless cosmopolitanism, of being out of touch with the soil and the mystery of "la France profonde," as an old trope for foreign and Jewish influence. In response, the president of