Cariou spent most of her career at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, known as Bercy. At Bercy, she took part in the tax audit operations of major French industrial and banking groups within the National and International Audits Department, then joined the Tax Legislation Department. In 2011, Cariou joined Arnaud Montebourg's campaign for the Socialist Party's primaries ahead of the 2012 presidential elections, advising him on tax policy. Following the 2012 elections, Cariou joined the cabinet of Fleur Pellerin, then Minister Delegate in charge of Small and Medium Enterprises, Innovation and the Digital Economy in the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls; in this capacity, she advised the minister on the taxation of the Big Tech. Shortly afterwards, Cariou followed Fleur Pellerin to the Ministry of Culture and Communication, where she was in charge of copyright issues within the European Union. She retained her position when Audrey Azoulay was appointed Minister, with a mission extended to France's international partnerships. In May 2014, Cariou became deputy director responsible for budget and financing at the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image .
Political career
In parliament, Cariou serves as member of the Finance Committee. In 2019, she succeeded Bénédicte Peyrol as her parliamentary group's coordinator on the committee. In 2018, Cariou served as the parliament's rapporteur on reforming procedures for prosecuting tax offences. In July 2019, Cariou announced her candidacy to succeed Carole Bureau-Bonnard as vice-president of the National Assembly; in an internal vote, she lost against Laëtitia Saint-Paul. In May 2020, Cariou joined seven lawmakers in leaving the LREM parliamentary group to join the new Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity group, depriving the president of an outright majority and raising pressure for more left-wing policies. By June, she and five other ex-LREM deputies announced the establishment of #Nous Demain, a "humanist, ecologist and feminist" political movement.
Political positions
In late 2017, Cariou was among those who campaigned, in light of the abolition of the solidarity tax on wealth, for an increase in the taxation of "external signs of wealth".
