Press release Paris, April 15, 2022
With 23.1% of the votes cast, Marine Le Pen qualified for the second round of the French presidential election. She is capitalizing on the fact that she is the only woman to have reached the second round twice, presenting herself as the "woman of state" that France, and French women in particular, need. Equipop agrees with all analyses expressing the dangers she poses to democracy in general. We emphasize, in the same vein, that she is an enemy of both gender equality and social justice.Marine Le Pen's revamped communication strategy should not obscure her political positions or conceal the true intentions of her program. It was undoubtedly in her speech on April 10 that the hypocrisy of the National Rally (RN) candidate was most striking. Marine Le Pen immediately positioned herself on the side of "social justice," which is the opposite of the RN's principle of national preference. She held out the promise of a "fraternal framework," which she regularly destroys through her racist rhetoric. She praised "equality, particularly between men and women," which she has always opposed and continues to fiercely oppose, with her retrograde positions and alliances with the most conservative political parties in Europe and around the world. Finally, she has defended herself against any "partisan ties," even though her sexist and misogynistic vision of society is still completely rooted in that of the National Front, of which she is the direct heir in both the literal and figurative sense.
In the 36 pages of the program and the document "22 measures for 2022," the word "women" appears only once, in reference to her female supporters. There is no booklet dedicated to gender equality among the 17 thematic booklets. On March 7, she published a "Letter to French Women," exploiting International Women's Day. She opportunistically touched on a few issues such as gynecological deserts and the fight against violence.
On the issue of sexual and reproductive rights, it should be noted that in 2012, Marine Le Pen considered removing reimbursement for abortion in certain cases (1), denouncing what she called "convenience abortions." "In the European Parliament, RN MEPs, including Marine Le Pen, have systematically voted against texts relating to women's rights and continue to do so, whether it be to improve access to abortion or to combat gender-based and sexual violence"(2), recalls Lucie Daniel, advocacy expert for Equipop. More recently, in 2021, RN MEPs voted against a text aimed at improving, for example, access to sex education in the EU, and against another aimed at combating all forms of violence, "expressly including violence against women in all their diversity and that directed against LGBTIQ+ people because of their gender identity, gender expression, and sexual characteristics"(3).
On the issue of international solidarity, Marine Le Pen makes public development aid conditional on the implementation of policies to manage migration flows. In addition to the xenophobic nature of this program, which is enough to disqualify it, the arrival of the National Rally in power would prevent the implementation of a feminist French foreign policy (despite being provided for in the international solidarity law adopted last summer). Marine Le Pen's role models and allies are the most misogynistic heads of state of recent decades: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, etc. Her policies would have catastrophic consequences for the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ people in France and Europe.
AsAs a feminist association, Equipop's role is to raise awareness about political ideas and figures that run counter to gender equality. This is the case with Marine Le Pen. We reaffirm that her vision for society has always been and continues to be deeply anti-feminist, anti-republican, and racist. It must be fought.
(1)https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/12/14/ivg-ce-que-disait-vraiment-marine-le-pen-en-2012_5992911_823448.html (2)See, for example, the Tarabella report in 2015 and the resolution on EU accession to the Istanbul Convention in 2016: https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2019/05/10/comment-le-rassemblement-national-vote-au-parlement-europeen_5460545_4355770.html#ancre_femmes (3) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2021-0249_FR.html#title7; https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2021-0169_FR.html#title6; https://basta.media/extreme-droite-parlement-europeen-violences-faites-aux-femmes-lutte-contre-le-racisme-droit-contraception-liberte-de-la-presse;
Press contact:
Louis Guinamard, +33 (0)6 25 83 95 23 / +33 (0)7 68 30 55 36, louis.guinamard@equipop.org[vc_column width= »1/6″][vc_single_image image= »32887″][vc_column width= »5/6″]Equipop combines social and political mobilization, project engineering, technical assistance, and partnership building to improve the rights and health of women and girls around the world. Equipop works closely with local communities through strong partnerships with change agents, right up to the highest levels of international decision-making. Equipop promotes feminist values and places a gender-based approach at the heart of its work.
