Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti[a] (born 13 August 1962) is a French–Spanish[1][2] politician who serves as Minister of the Overseas in the Bayrou government since 2024.

He was regarded as belonging to the Socialist Party's social liberal wing, sharing common orientations with Blairism.

While studying history at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Tolbiac campus, he was a member of the UNEF-ID, a progressive students' union.

On 30 June 2009 he founded a political organisation with the slogan "The Left Needs Optimism," to provide legal and financial support the Socialist Primary candidates.

[19] In March 2014, following major losses to centre-right and extreme-right political parties in French municipal elections, President François Hollande appointed Valls to the post of Prime Minister.

"[23] French citizens booed him when he joined the memorial for the victims, yelling "murderer" and "resign" at him before the minute of silence for the dead began.

[29] After his loss in the Socialist Party primary, Valls refused to endorse Benoît Hamon, citing the difference in views.

[31] After Macron's win in the second round of the presidential election, Valls announced that he wanted to run for reelection to the National Assembly under the En Marche!

[35] Valls won reelection as an independent with 50.3% of the vote in the second round, but the result was challenged by his opponent, Farida Amrani of La France Insoumise.

[37] On 25 September 2018, Valls announced his candidacy in the 2019 Barcelona City Council election and declared that he was resigning all political responsibilities in France.

[41] Valls, along the other 2 municipal councillors elected in the Barcelona pel Canvi–Ciutadans list who were not members of Citizens–Party of the Citizenry (Celestino Corbacho and Eva Parera), gave an "unconditional" vote to Ada Colau in the investiture of the Mayor of Barcelona, with the sole purpose of preventing separatist Ernest Maragall becoming Mayor.

Days later, Cs announced the breakup of their alliance with Valls, and their will to form their own municipal group, to which Corbacho also joined later.

[46] On December 30, he and the Prime minister visited Mayotte to assess the damages of Cyclone Chido and to announce a series of measure addressing that department's crisis.

During the 2011 presidential primary, he defined himself as "Blairiste" or "Clintonien", and described his position as "in the tradition of Pierre Mendès France, Lionel Jospin and Michel Rocard".

[citation needed] In June 2009, while visiting a market in Évry, of which he was then mayor, he was caught on camera suggesting that the presence of more white people would give a better image of the city.

In an interview with the right-wing magazine Valeurs actuelles in June 2020, he was asked about the death of Adama Traoré (a young Malian French man who died in custody after being apprehended by police), and Manuel Valls stated that "the logic of victimisation is reinforced by the links between the indigenist movement and part of the left" and that "the class struggle disappears in favour of confrontation, of war between 'races'".

"[56] In 2002, as mayor of Évry, he opposed a branch of the national grocery store chain Franprix, located in a predominately Muslim neighbourhood, deciding to sell only halal-certified meat/products and products that do not contain alcohol.

[61] On 12 October 2009, Valls expressed "total disagreement" with a proposal by Daniel Vaillant for decriminalisation or legalisation of cannabis.

Valls argued, "The question of drugs that produce considerable damage in some neighbourhoods and nourish the underground economy, cannot be handled this way.

"[62] Valls said after the 2015 Paris attacks that French society needed a "general mobilisation" against the appeal of "deadly" doctrines.

[63] After the 2016 Nice truck attack, Valls said, "Times have changed, and France is going to have to live with terrorism, and we must face this together and show our collective sang-froid.

On 1 July 2010, he married[65] Anne Gravoin, a violinist and winner of the Conservatoire de Paris' prestigious Premier Prix for Violin and Chamber Orchestra.

[70] Owing to his family background, Valls is fluent in French, Spanish, Catalan and Italian,[71] and is distantly related to the Marquesses del Bosch de Arés.