Valérie Boyer

Valérie Boyer (born 11 June 1962) is a French politician who has served as a Senator for the Bouches-du-Rhône department since 2020. A member of The Republicans (LR), she was previously elected to the National Assembly from 2007 until 2020. Boyer has also been a municipal councillor of Marseille since 2001.[1][2]

Valérie Boyer
Senator for Bouches-du-Rhône
Assumed office
1 October 2020
Member of the National Assembly
for Bouches-du-Rhône
In office
20 June 2007 – 30 September 2020
Preceded byChristophe Masse
Succeeded byJulien Ravier
Constituency8th (2007–2012)
1st (2012–2020)
Personal details
Born (1962-06-11) 11 June 1962
Bourges, France
Political partyUnion for a Popular Movement (until 2015)
The Republicans (since 2015)
Children3
ResidenceMarseille
Alma materSciences Po Aix

Early life

Boyer was born on 11 June 1962 in Bourges. Her parents were born in Algeria and Tunis during French colonial occupation. They were pieds noirs who fled from Algeria in 1962.[3]

Political career

Member of the National Assembly, 2007–2020

First elected to the municipal council of Marseille in the 2001 election, she became a member of the National Assembly in 2007. Boyer also served as a deputy (adjointe) to Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin from 2008 to 2014 and held the mayorship of the 6th sector (11th and 12th arrondissements) of Marseille from 2014 to 2017.

Ahead of the presidential election in 2017, Boyer served as campaign spokesperson for François Fillon alongside Jérôme Chartier, as a party affiliate.[4] In The Republicans' 2017 leadership election, she endorsed Laurent Wauquiez. Following his election, she was appointed the party's deputy secretary general in charge of relations with civil society.[5]

In Parliament, Boyer served as member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[6] In addition to her committee assignments, she was a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Jordan, Armenia and South Sudan.

Member of the Senate, 2020–present

Boyer was elected to the French Senate in the 2020 French Senate election, and was replaced in the Assembly by Julien Ravier.

Political positions

Boyer first drew attention in 2008 when she drafted a law which would make the promotion of extreme dieting a crime punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of some $45,000; it passed the National Assembly, but later failed in the Senate.[7] In 2009, she proposed a bill to punish advertisements which include anorexic models.[8] She proposed to fine offenders with up to 30,000 euros.

On 22 December 2011, the National Assembly adopted a bill presented by Boyer, penalising denial of the Armenian genocide. This decision caused a controversy between France and Turkey. In the days that followed, she claimed to have received death and rape threats. No one was actually charged with these allegations. Turkish hackers took down the French Senate's website in order to protest the bill.[9][10]

In 2019, Boyer opposed a bioethics law extending to homosexual and single women free access to fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) under France's national health insurance; it was one of the campaign promises of President Emmanuel Macron and marked the first major social reform of his five-year term.[11]

Personal life

Boyer is a divorced mother of three.[12]

References
  1. Office of the Secretary General (2012). "Valérie Boyer". Assemblee-nationale.fr (in French). National Assembly of France. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  2. French MP of the right-wing Les Republicains (LR) party Valeri...| World news | gettyimages.com. gettyimages. Retrieved on 13 March 2017.
  3. Steven Erlanger (2 December 2009), Point, Shoot, Retouch and Label? The New York Times.
  4. Ingrid Melander (22 November 2016), I am no 'medieval reactionary', says France's Fillon Reuters.
  5. Ludovic Vigogne (11 October 2017), La liste des 136 parrains de Laurent Wauquiez L'Opinion.
  6. Valérie Boyer French National Assembly.
  7. Steven Erlanger (2 December 2009), Point, Shoot, Retouch and Label? The New York Times.
  8. French fight anorexia on the fashion pages | World news | guardian.co.uk. Guardian. Retrieved on 23 January 2012.
  9. EUROPE – French MP receives death threats. Hurriyetdailynews.com (13 September 2011). Retrieved on 2012-01-23.
  10. Turkish Hackers Target ‘Pitiful, Pathetic’ French For Armenian Genocide Vote – Worldcrunch – All News is Global Archived 12 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Worldcrunch (29 December 2011). Retrieved on 2012-01-23.
  11. Harriet Agnew (24 September 2019), France moves to extend IVF to gay and single women Financial Times.
  12. Steven Erlanger (2 December 2009), Point, Shoot, Retouch and Label? The New York Times.
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