Who is Gil Avérous, the new Minister of Sports?

Mayor of Châteauroux since 2014, the former member of the Republicans was appointed Minister of Sports on Saturday in Michel Barnier’s new government.

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s successor is known. After sixty-seven days of waiting, the Michel Barnier government was unveiled on Saturday, September 21. At the lectern, Alexis Kohler, the secretary general of the Elysée, announced the names of all the new ministers, including that of Gil Avérous (51 years old).

The mayor of Châteauroux (Indre) becomes the fourth Minister of Sports under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron (after Laura Flessel, Roxana Maracineanu and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra), the first man and the first not to come from the world of sport. He nevertheless worked so that his city would host the 2024 Olympic Games, with success. The shooting events were held in Berry, at the National Shooting Center (CNTS) in Châteauroux. “We only found out very late, on July 12, 2022, that we had been selected to be an Olympic site”recalled Gil Avérous in an interview with the newspaper Republican Berry end of July.

Ten million euros were invested to host the Olympic Games in the city. “Our challenge, mainly, was to improve our hotel industry, our accommodation capacity. We created new hotels. The town of Arthon renovated the old La Berrichonne football training center to transform it into a high-end hotel.”he always detailed for Republican Berrywith the hope of hosting other international sporting events in the future.

Gil Avérous is also president of the association Villes de France, which represents municipalities with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. On the right since the beginning of his career, he has been without a label since December 21, 2023, the date on which he decided to leave Les Républicains, in deep disagreement with the leadership of the party then led by Eric Ciotti.My discontent began the day after the first round of the presidential election. [de 2022] when, in the political office, the majority choice was made to send Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron back to back and not to call for a vote in the second round clearly for Emmanuel Macron”the person concerned wrote in a letter to AFP.