# Xavier Emmanuelli

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French doctor and politician (1938–2025)

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Emmanuelli in 2007

**Xavier Emmanuelli** (23 August 1938 – 16 November 2025) was a French doctor and politician. He was the co-founder of [Médecins Sans Frontières](/source/M%C3%A9decins_Sans_Fronti%C3%A8res).[1][2]

## Life and career

Xavier Emmanuelli was born to Corsican parents. His father, a schoolteacher and later a doctor, was from Zalana, and his mother, also a schoolteacher, was from Propriano. Members of the Resistance during World War II, they hid Jewish children and were recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations." He has two sisters, Anne Marie Emmanuelli-Orecchioni, a university professor (faculty of pharmacy), and Claire Emmanuelli-Zara, a gynecologist,[3] and a brother, Jean-Marc Emmanuelli, a gynecologist and surgeon, president of the Association of Corsican Doctors, founded by their father after World War II with island doctors exiled in Paris.[4]

During his student years, he hesitated between philosophy and medicine. A communist activist, he was a university friend of [Bernard Kouchner](/source/Bernard_Kouchner),[5] with whom he participated in the anti-fascist security service,[5] then in an expedition to Jordan in September 1970.[6] This anti-colonialist was an occasional cartoonist for [Hara-Kiri](/source/Hara-Kiri_(magazine)).[3] Along with [Rony Brauman](/source/Rony_Brauman), he was one of the many members of the Cochin group of friends who had a "strong propensity" to "experience activism as an opportunity to go" primarily "beat up fascists",[5] against whom he "frequently got into fistfights."[7][8]

Emmanuelli ultimately opted for medicine, graduating in 1967 and then specializing in neurology and then in anesthesiology and intensive care in 1976. He was a general practitioner for the coal mining company at the Freyming-Merlebach Mining Hospital from 1972 to 1975, then a doctor in the merchant navy for two years.[9] Meanwhile, he joined the leadership of [Doctors Without Borders](/source/Doctors_Without_Borders), where he reconnected with Rony Brauman, whom he had known during his activist years as a student at Cochin Hospital. He twice refused Brauman's requests for missions when he applied, in 1976 and 1978.[10] He then trained in emergency medicine and joined the SAMU (Emergency Medical Service) under the direction of his mentor, Professor Pierre Huguenard, one of the founders of the SAMU.[3] He has three children who also studied medicine.

In 1993, Emmanuelli co-founded the SAMU Social (Emergency Medical Service) of the city of Paris with Dominique Versini.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] Since 1997, he has returned to practicing medicine and was head of the national network "Psychological Suffering and Precariousness," created in April 1998.[11]

Between 1995 and 1997, Emmanuelli served as Secretary of State for Emergency Humanitarian Action in the first and second governments of [Alain Juppé](/source/Alain_Jupp%C3%A9).[12]

Emmanuelli died in Paris on 16 November 2025, at the age of 87, after a "probable cardiac" collapse, according to the announcement by Samu social.[13][14][12]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Mort de Xavier Emmanuelli, l'un des pères du Samu Social et de Médecins Sans Frontières](https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/l-info-de-france-inter/l-info-de-france-inter-8747125) (in French)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Xavier Emmanuelli, fondateur du Samusocial, est mort à l'âge de 87 ans"](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/11/16/xavier-emmanuelli-fondateur-du-samusocial-est-mort-a-l-age-de-87-ans_6653663_3382.html). *[Le Monde](/source/Le_Monde)*.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Deldique_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Deldique_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Deldique_3-2) Pierre-Edouard Deldique, interview de Xavier Emmanuelli pour l'émission *Idées* sur [RFI](/source/Radio_France_internationale), 29 juillet 2012

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Christophe Deloire (27 June 2003). "Les Corses qui comptent". *Le Point* (in French). No. 1606. p. 44.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Siméant_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Siméant_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Siméant_5-2) « Entrer, rester en humanitaire : des fondateurs de MSF aux membres actuels des ONG médicales françaises », Johanna Siméant-Germanos, *[Revue française de science politique](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Revue_fran%C3%A7aise_de_science_politique&action=edit&redlink=1)*, 2001 [\[1\]](https://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=RFSP_511_0047)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** « MSF, une vie de révoltes », Jean-Francis Pécresse, 20 décembre 2001 [\[2\]](https://www.lesechos.fr/2001/12/msf-une-vie-de-revoltes-1054744)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** "Chapitre 1. 1968-1976 Le « coup » des fondateurs"" par Pascal Dauvin et Johanna Siméant-Germanos, dans "Le travail humanitaire", en 2002 [\[3\]](https://www.cairn.info/le-travail-humanitaire--9782724608690-page-35.htm)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** « Entrer, rester en humanitaire : des fondateurs de MSF aux membres actuels des ONG médicales françaises », Johanna Siméant-Germanos, *[Revue française de science politique](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Revue_fran%C3%A7aise_de_science_politique&action=edit&redlink=1)*, 2001 [\[4\]](https://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=RFSP_511_0047)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Bruno Frappat (6 June 2012). ["Le casse-pied nécessaire"](https://web.archive.org/web/20181008214206/https://www.la-croix.com/Culture-Loisirs/Culture/Livres/Le-casse-pied-necessaire-_NG_-2012-06-06-815119). *La Croix*. Archived from [the original](http://www.la-croix.com/Culture-Loisirs/Culture/Livres/Le-casse-pied-necessaire-_NG_-2012-06-06-815119) on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** *Médecins Sans Frontières La biographie*, [Anne Vallaeys](/source/Anne_Vallaeys), 2004, éditions Médecins sans frontières

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Xavier Emmanuelli lance un réseau d'aide psy aux SDF"](http://www.liberation.fr/societe/0101294827-xavier-emmanuelli-lance-un-reseau-d-aide-psy-aux-sdf). *liberation.fr*. 6 October 1999.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Le_Monde_2025-11-16_12-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Le_Monde_2025-11-16_12-1) ["Xavier Emmanuelli, fondateur du Samusocial, est mort à l'âge de 87 ans"](https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2025/11/16/xavier-emmanuelli-fondateur-du-samusocial-est-mort-a-l-age-de-87-ans_6653663_3382.html). *Le Monde*. 16 November 2025. Retrieved 16 November 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** [*Xavier Emmanuelli, fondateur du Samu social, est décédé*](https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/corse/xavier-emmanuelli-fondateur-du-samu-social-de-paris-est-decede-3250384.html)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** ["Xavier Emmanuelli, fondateur du Samu social, est mort à l'âge de 87 ans, annonce l'organisation"](https://www.franceinfo.fr/societe/xavier-emmanuelli-fondateur-du-samu-social-est-mort-a-l-age-de-87-ans-annonce-l-organisation_7620347.html). *Franceinfo* (in French). 16 November 2025. Retrieved 16 November 2025.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Xavier Emmanuelli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Emmanuelli) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xavier_Emmanuelli?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.