Damien Abad


Damien Abad is a French politician who has been member of the French National Assembly since 2012, representing Ain. From 2009 until 2012, he was a member of the European Parliament, representing South-East France.

Early life and education

Abad's father was a buyer for Perrier, from a family that had fled Franco's Spain, his mother was a social worker, both were rather left-wing, still when François Mitterrand was elected president in 1981. He likes to say in interviews that one of his grandfathers was a miner in Saint-Étienne.
A former student of high school Alphonse-Daudet, he was a major Sciences Po Bordeaux and graduated from Sciences Po Paris. He failed twice at the grand oral for ÉNA..
Abad has the congenital neuromuscular disorder known as arthrogryposis.

Political career

Early beginnings

He became in charge of studies on budgetary and fiscal issues at the UDF group in March 2006 and then at the New Center group at the National Assembly. From 2008 to 2009, he is also a Docent in Public Finance at Sciences Po Paris
President of the Young Centrists until his election, Abad worked for the New Centre group in the National Assembly on fiscal and budget issues.
In 2007, Abad was candidate in Yvelines' 5th constituency, where he won 3.17% of the vote, and in 2008 he was elected to the Municipal Council of Vauvert.

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–2012

In June 2009, for the 2009 European elections, Abad was elected Member of the European Parliament on the list of the presidential majority in the South-East France constituency. At the age of 29, he became the youngest French MEP and the youngest French parliamentarian in office. He was one of the youngest elected members of the European Parliament. During his time in parliament, he served on the Committee on Budgets and on the Committee on International Trade. In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the parliament’s delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council.
On 2 April 2015, Abad was elected as the President of the Departmental council of Ain. Due to the limitation of the plurality of the mandates, he resigned from his position of President of the Departmental council of Ain on 10 July 2017.

Member of the National Assembly, 2012–present

In 2012, Abad ran to represent Ain's 5th constituency as a member of the Union for a Popular Movement. He was elected with 13,231 votes in the second round against the socialist candidate, Josiane Exposito.
Abad was reelected on 18 June 2017. He subsequently was a candidate for the presidency of the parliamentary group LR against Christian Jacob, the latter is finally reelected. From 2017 until 2019, he served as one of Jacob's eleven deputy chairpersons.
During a 15th legislature of the French Fifth Republic, Abad serves on the National Defence and Armed Forces Committee. He is a member of European Affairs Committee, and member of Working Group on the Legislative Procedure and the Parliamentary Organization and the Rights of the Opposition.
He is Vice-president of the France-China Friendship Group.
In addition to his work in parliament, Abad has served as member of the French delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2014 until 2017 and since 2017. In this capacity, he is a member of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development.
In the Republicans’ 2016 presidential primaries, Abad endorsed Bruno Le Maire as the party’s candidate for the office of President of France. In the Republicans’ 2017 leadership election, he endorsed Laurent Wauquiez.
Following Christian Jacob's election as LR chairman, Abad ran for the leadership of the party's parliamentary group again in November 2019; he won by 64 votes over Olivier Marleix.

Political positions

In July 2019, Abad voted against the French ratification of the European Union’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada.