Harlem Désir

Harlem Désir
Secretary of State for European Affairs
In office
9 April 2014  10 May 2017
Prime MinisterManuel Valls
Bernard Cazeneuve
Preceded byThierry Repentin
Succeeded byMarielle de Sarnez
11th First Secretary of the Socialist Party
In office
18 October 2012  9 April 2014
(acting: 16 September 2012 – 18 October 2012)
Preceded byMartine Aubry
Succeeded byJean-Christophe Cambadélis
In office
30 June 2011  16 October 2011
(acting)
Preceded byMartine Aubry
Succeeded byMartine Aubry
Member of the European Parliament
In office
20 July 1999  8 April 2014
Succeeded byChristine Revault d'Allonnes-Bonnefoy
ConstituencyFrance
Personal details
Born (1959-11-25) 25 November 1959
Paris, France
Political party French:
Socialist Party
 EU:
Party of European Socialists
Alma materUniversity of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne

Harlem Jean-Philippe Désir (French: [aʁlɛm deziʁ]; born 25 November 1959) is a French politician who served as leader of the Socialist Party (PS) from 2012 to 2014.

First widely known as a community activist and as the first president of SOS Racisme in the 1980s, Désir subsequently entered politics in the 1990s, first in Génération Écologie then in the PS. He served as MEP from 1999 to 2014 and then served in the government of France as Secretary of State for European Affairs from 2014 to 2017. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media.