Eddie Jacquemart

Eddie Jacquemart was born in 1964 in Dunkirk, into a working-class family. The son of a dockworker and a small business owner, he has remained deeply attached to his region, its popular culture and the values of solidarity that have shaped his life and commitment.

A graduate in accounting and financial expertise, he worked for more than ten years in an accounting firm before becoming a financial adviser for a major federation of organisations in the social and medico-social sector. He also worked as a trainer in accounting and management. These experiences gave him first-hand knowledge of the voluntary sector, public policies and the workings of organisations serving the public interest.

His involvement with the Confédération nationale du logement (CNL), France’s national housing rights organisation, began in 1995 with the creation of a social housing tenants’ association in the Lille metropolitan area. After serving as treasurer and then president of the CNL federation in the Nord department, he joined the National Administrative Committee in 2000 and the Confederation’s Executive Board in 2009. Elected National President of the CNL in 2013, he has made the right to housing, the defence of social housing and social diversity the central pillars of his work. Since 2009, he has also represented the CNL on the Board of the International Union of Tenants.

Having carried out all his responsibilities within associations on a voluntary basis, Eddie Jacquemart is particularly committed to the recognition of civic engagement and to the role played by voluntary organisations’ representatives in democratic life.

Alongside his national responsibilities, he is actively involved in local public life in Lille. Elected city councillor in 2020, he became Deputy Mayor of Lille in 2026, with responsibility for popular education, the right to holidays, equality, and the fight against racism and discrimination.

A committed author on social and housing issues, he published Fils de HLM (Son of Social Housing, Éditions Arcane 17) in 2023, a personal and activist account. In 2025, he wrote the foreword to Manifeste pour la Sécurité sociale du logement (Manifesto for a Social Security System for Housing, Éditions Arcane 17), devoted to the creation of universal protection for tenants. In 2026, he contributed to the collective work Habiter pour bifurquer (Living Differently to Enable Change), edited by the Fondation Copernic and published by Éditions du Croquant. In September 2026, SRU : mieux la comprendre pour mieux la défendre. Liberté, Égalité, Mixité (SRU: Understanding It Better to Defend It Better. Liberty, Equality, Social Diversity) will be published by Éditions Arcane 17, an essay devoted to the SRU law and its ambition to promote social diversity.

His long-standing commitment to the right to housing, solidarity and the public interest was recognised with his appointment as a Knight of the Légion d’honneur in 2026.