Since June 21, 2017, Florence Parly (58) has been Minister of the Armed Forces, first under the Philippe then Castex government. Its role is essential now, since Vladimir Putin’s Russia declared war on Ukraine, invades it and raises the nuclear threat. In the front row alongside outgoing President Emmanuel Macron, she can count on the support of her husband Martin Vial (68), a senior civil servant. Who is the man who shares the life of the one who is at the head of the Hôtel de Brienne?
Florence Parly and Martin Vial have always wanted to be discreet about their private life. A choice that is all the more understandable with the consequences, unofficial, that their couple was able to cause a few years ago. In Release in 2002, one could read about it: “Obsessive protector of his private life, Martin Vial was particularly affected when his affair with Florence Parly, budget secretary appointed in January 2000, at the age of 36, was exhumed by some to explain his position as president. [de la Poste]. They met in 1991, have a child. He doesn’t talk about it. She neither. Pregnant, she posed in She without revealing the name of the father.“
Indeed, the appointment of Martin Vial to the presidency of La Poste was to last five years, but it was cut short in 2002. According to The Parisian, the government of the time, that of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, would have criticized him for his proximity to the left in reference to his partner Florence Parly, but also the management of the transition to 35 hours and the cost of the RTT file. Almost twenty years later, this graduate of ESSEC and the National School of Posts and Telecommunications is now director of the State Participation Agency (APE).
Florence Parly was on the airwaves of RTL on February 25 to react to the Russian attacks: “The current situation is a situation where Russia has declared war on Ukraine. The question is, do we want to go to war against Russia. Russia is a nuclear power. We are NATO, a nuclear alliance, is that what we want? (…) France has deployed all diplomatic efforts to avoid this war, we are at Ukraine’s side on all fronts.“