Carole Delga

Carole Delga (born 19 August 1971) is a French politician of the Socialist Party (PS) who has been serving as the President of the Regional Council of Occitania since 2016.

Delga is considered to be a potential candidate in the 2027 French presidential election.

Political career
Delga has been a member of the Socialist Party since 2004.

Member of the National Assembly, 2012–2017
From 2012 until 2017, Delga was a member of the National Assembly, where she served on the Finance Committee (2012–2014) and the Defence Committee (2015–2017).

In 2014, Delga briefly served as Secretary of State for Trade, Crafts, Consumer and Social Economy and Solidarity under Minister of Finance and Public Accounts Michel Sapin in the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls; she replaced Valérie Fourneyron who had resigned for health reasons. In June 2015, she left the government to launch her campaign for regional elections; she was replaced by Martine Pinville.

President of Occitanie, 2016–present
Ahead of the Socialist Party's 2017 primaries, Delta publicly endorsed Manuel Valls as the party's candidate for the presidential election later that year. Since 2017, she has been part of the party's leadership.

Delga was re-elected in the 2021 French regional elections. Shortly after, she was also elected as president of Régions de France, a group representing the regions of France; it was the first time since 2016 that the association was led by a left-wing personality, and for the first time by a woman.

Ahead of the 2022 presidential election, Delga endorsed Anne Hidalgo as the Socialist Party’s candidate. In 2023, she publicly endorsed Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol as candidate to challenge Olivier Faure for the party's leadership.

Political positions
Delga is a critic of the New Ecological and Social People's Union.

Controversy
In April 2019, Delga was sentenced by the Nîmes Court of Appeal to a fine of €8,000 and damages to the municipality of Beaucaire, Gard, for "discrimination based on political opinions" and "obstructing the exercise of a economic activity" after having refused to sign a city contract established by the municipality of Beaucaire led by Julien Sanchez, and not having chosen this municipality to host the future general high school built by the region in the Gard.