French Elections 2024 and Impact on Muslims
On 9th June 2024, after the sweeping victory of the National Rally ( far right) party to the European elections, President Macron decided to dissolve to the Assemblée National. Macron called his snap decision “an act of confidence”, saying he had faith “in the capacity of the French people to make the best choice for themselves and for future generations” (https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/09/frances-snap-election-what-happened-why-and-whats-next) (https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2024/06/10/snap-elections-in-france-how-it-works-precedents-and-consequences_6674391_8.html).
Contrary to expectations, the New Popular Front (NFP) leftist coalition secured just over 180 seats, surpassing President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, which won more than 160 seats. Marine Le Pen’s far-right and its allies finished in third place, despite taking the lead in the first round of the elections. With over 140 seats, the far-right had a significant increase from their previous best of 89 seats in 2022.).
Muslim Political Representation :
France is home to the largest number of Muslims in Europe. (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/11/29/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/) According to the 2020 report of National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), Muslims represent 10% of the French population (https://www.firstpost.com/world/muslims-represented-10-of-french-population-in-2019-2020-report-12390562.html). With an estimated 6 million people who practise Islam or have a Muslim background, the community ranks among Europe’s most established, with families who have spent as many as five generations carving out lives that blend French and Muslim traditions. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/21/france-snap-parliamentary-elections-muslims-lyon-far-right-national-rally#:~:text=France%20is%20home%20to%20one%20of%20Europe’s,practise%20Islam%20or%20have%20a%20Muslim%20background.) In 2022, 32 Muslim MPs were elected whereas in the 2024 Parliament elections, 19 Muslims have been elected thus making approximately 3.29% in the French Parliament. This representation lags behind the UK, where 25 Muslim MPs were elected to the House of Commons, representing 3.84% of the Parliament against 6.0% of the population ( https://www.euro-islam.info/2024/08/12/muslims-and-the-uk-general-election-2024/).
Out of the 19 Muslim MPs, 12 are women. The youngest Muslim MP, Hanane Mansouri is also a woman. Conversely, 208 women, compared with 369 men, are sitting in the French National Assembly this time, representing just over a third (36%) of all MPs and their number has been decreasing : There were 224 female MPs in 2017, but just 215 in 2022 (https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2024/07/09/age-gender-profession-who-are-france-s-new-members-of-parliament_6678555_8.html).
Most of the elected Muslim MPs are ethnically Algerian as they were in the last general election. Other MPs, are ethnically from Morocco, Iran, Gambia and Tunisia. 2 Muslim MPs are under the age of 30, while only one is above 60 years old. Most number of MPs, i.e. 8 are between the age of 40-50. 13 MPs are below the age of 50.
Of the elected Muslim MPs, 5 belong to La France Insoumise Party (LFI)[1] whereas 4 belong to the La République En Marche party (LREM)[2]. Others represent the Socialist Party[3], National Rally[4], Republican[5], Ecologist and Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-mer et Territoires.
Islamophobia was a central theme in the different political parties campaign from left to extreme right.
French Political Parties and the Islamophobic Rhetoric
The political landscape remains fraught with challenges for Muslims. as the anti-Muslim sentiment continues to resonate with a substantial portion of the French electorate (https://www.eurasiareview.com/16072024-the-future-of-french-muslims-after-election-2024-oped/). It is therefore not surprising that according to French pollster IFOP’s, as many as 59 % of Muslim voters abstained in the European elections, while 62 percent of those who did go out opted for the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party, which finished a distant fourth (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/vote-left-or-abstain-muslims-face-stark-election-choice-in-france/3261090).
Rayan Freschi, a legal expert and rights activist, highlights the dilemma facing many French Muslims: “Voting for the left is not really a choice of the heart” (https://www.eurasiareview.com/16072024-the-future-of-french-muslims-after-election-2024-oped/) since left-wing parties have propagated Islamophobia “in the name of secularism and emancipatory values.” (https://www.trtworld.com/discrimination/frances-snap-elections-muslims-face-stark-choice-amid-far-right-surge-18178024) Hence, political parties across the country either give into, or propagate Islamophobia, making it difficult for Muslims in the country.
La France Insoumise Party
LFI is the only party that denounced systemic and state racism and the only one to propose the abrogation of the “law against Islamist separatism”, passed by MacRn’s government (https://www.euro-islam.info/2021/08/04/enforcing-the-french-law-against-islamic-separatism-consequences-on-religious-freedom/)(https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/france-elections-far-right-power-dire-consequences-muslims). The party has supported the Palestinian cause by advocating for a Palestinian state (https://left.eu/europe-must-recognise-palestinian-statehood/ ) LFI MP Sebatien Delogu swayed the Palestinian flag in the National Assembly and was subsequently sanctioned by a 15-day exclusion (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/palestine/gaza/assemblee-nationale-un-drapeau-palestinien-brandi-par-un-depute-insoumis_6572306.html).
The party’s approach on the Palestine issue was successful in getting Muslims vote. According to Jean-Daniel Lévy, of the Harris Institute, the LFI aims” to succeed in imposing this Palestine-workers campaign theme and being identified as defenders of minorities, against injustice and racism by 2027 elections to improve its performance electorally” (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/elections/europeennes-2024-mettre-gaza-au-c-ur-de-la-campagne-le-pari-de-lfi-qui-clive-la-gauche_6522986.html)(https://www.francetvinfo.fr/elections/europeennes-2024-mettre-gaza-au-c-ur-de-la-campagne-le-pari-de-lfi-qui-clive-la-gauche_6522986.html).
Renaissance Party/ La Republique En Marche
The Renaissance Party/La Republique en Marche party has fueled islamophobia in the country. In 2021 Macaron government passed the Anti-Separatism law, officially known as the “Law Reinforcing Respect for the Principles of the Republic.” The LREM government has barred athletes representing France from wearing hijabs or other religious symbols while competing at the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (https://www.euro-islam.info/2023/11/28/french-policies-banning-hijabs-and-abayas-draw-outrage-at-home-and-abroad/).Macron, himself has throughout his tenure acontributed to anti-Muslim rhetoric by associating Islamic practices with political risks. ts (https://www.euro-islam.info/2023/11/28/french-policies-banning-hijabs-and-abayas-draw-outrage-at-home-and-abroad/), (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/28/anger-towards-emmanuel-macron-grows-in-muslim-world), (https://www.euronews.com/2020/11/02/macron-and-islam-what-has-the-french-president-actually-said-to-outrage-the-muslim-world).
National Rally
The National Rally has been vocal against Islamic practices in French society and continuously warns against the Islamicisation of the country calling for a“cultural battle” against Islam (https://muslimmirror.com/eng/french-elections-19-muslim-lawmakers-elected-left-coalition-tops-results/(https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/magazine/mag-01LePen-t.html?pagewanted=all). (https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2021/01/30/marine-le-pen-revendique-la-brutalite-contre-l-islamisme_6068202_823448.html, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/what-is-the-headscarf-doing-in-politics-muslim-headscarves-become-issue-in-french-presidential-campaign). The party has also connected Muslims immigration to the risk of terrorism (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/europe/marine-le-pens-anti-islam-message-gains-influence-in-france.html). During the 2024 elections, Israeli minister for diaspora Amichai Chikli expressed support for Le Pen and the National Rally because of his government concern for islamophobia(https://themedialine.org/top-stories/diaspora-affairs-minister-chikli-stands-by-praise-for-frances-le-pen-exclusive/). The anti-immigration party secured one in three votes in the first round of parliamentary elections (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clwy27j9l2go).
RN leader Jordan Bardella, appealed to voters to make a choice between a left-wing alliance he called “an existential threat to the French nation” and a party of patriots ready to leap into action. He wanted to restrict social welfare to French citizens, abolish the automatic right to French citizenship – droit du sol – for people who came to France as children, and prevent 3.5 million people with dual citizenship from holding sensitive, strategic jobs. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clwy27j9l2go).
French Muslim MPs:
- Farida Amarani
Born in 1976 in Morocco, Amrani is French trade unionist and politician from La France Insoumise. She has been a Member of Parliament since 2022. After a Vocational Baccalauréat she became a territorial civil servant in 2003 at the Cœur d’Essonne. She worked for the General Confederation of Labour[6]. In the 2014 French municipal elections, she ran for the Left Front list, obtaining 18.78% of the vote in the second round. She was first elected in 2022 as a member of parliament from Essonne. She was re-elected from Essonne constituency after receiving 50.97% votes in the second round in 2024.
- Anaïs Belouassa-Cherifi
She was born in 1995 in Thionville. She is a French politician of La France Insoumise. She was elected from Rhone’s 1st constituency with more than 23000 votes.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA841657
- Anchya Bamana
Born in 1971 in Sada, Mayotte, Bamana is a politician of the National Rally. She was elected member of the National Assembly for Mayotte’s 2nd constituency in 2024.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA842279
- Belkhir Belhaddad
Born in 1969 in Algeria, Belhaddad moved to France when his parents migrated to work in the steel industry. He was previously a member of the Socialist Party but joined LREM in 2016. In parliament, Belhaddad serves as member of the Committee on Social Affairs. In 2024 elections, he was re-elected from LREM with more than 55% votes in Moselle’s 1st constituency.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA720362
- Karim Ben Cheïkh
He was born in 1977 in Tunisia. He is a member of Écologiste et Social party. He represents the 9th constituency for French residents overseas since 2022. He was re-elected in 2024.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA795454
- Karim Benbrahim
He was born in 1980 in Salon-de-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône. His father is from Tunisia. He has served as an engineer in renewable energies at Réseau de transport d’électricité in Nantes. He became a member of the Socialist Party at the age of 24, in 2005. He ran for elections in 2022 from the 1st constituency of Loire-Atlantique but was defeated by Mounir Belhamiti. Karim Benbrahim was elected on February 2, 2023 as head of the Loire-Atlantique section of the Socialist Party. In 2024 elections, he finally won in the second round with 46.16% of the vote, in a three-way race against Mounir Belhamiti and the National Rally candidate , Bryan Pecqueur.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA841315
- Soumya Bourouaha
She was born in 1964 in Algeria. She belongs to the French Communist Party. She was first elected in 2022 from Seine-Saint-Denis’s 4th constituency. She has been re-elected in 2024 with 69.8% votes.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA720838
- Dieynaba Diop
She was born in 1974 in Mantes-la-Jolie in France. Her parents are Senegalese. Having grown up in council housing in the Vigne-Blanche district of Les Mureaux she became a history and geography teacher in a vocational high school in Mantes-la-Jolie. She is of dual French-Senegalese nationality 4 and declares herself a practicing Muslim . She joined the Socialist Party in 2013. She was a candidate for the European Parliament in the 2024 election. . She has been elected for the first time for Yvelines’s 9th constituency in 2024 elections.
- Aly Diouara
He was born in 1987 in La CourneuveHis family is from Gambia. La France Insoumise. He won with a 60% votes in the second round from 5th constituency of Seine Saint Denis for the France Insoumise list.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA842155
- Benjamin Haddad
He was born in 1985. Haddad obtained an MA in international affairs from Sciences Po, Paris and an MA from HEC Paris in financial economics. He is a politician of the Renaissance party/ LREM who has been serving as a member of the National Assembly since 2022, representing Paris’s 14th constituency which covers the 16th arrondissement of Paris.
https://benjaminhaddad2024.fr/pages/5mtv5UP9I5JLfWTqF7KFMB/qui-suis-je
- Ayda Hadizadeh
She was born in 1982 in Tehran.. She has been elected in 2024 from the 2nd constituency of Val d’Oise with more than 50% votes On the social party list.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA842263
- Zahia Hamdane
She was born in 1965 in Amiens to Algerian parents. Her father was a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front. She joined the La France Insoumise in 2016. In 2022, she was a candidate for the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (NUPES) in the legislative elections but had to narrowly lose in the second round to Barbara Pompili, who was elected as a deputy. She was elected as a deputy in the 2024 legislative elections on July 7 from 2nd constituency of Somme, following a three-way race pitting her, in the second round, against Hubert de Jenlis, vice-president of the Somme departmental council and deputy mayor of Amiens, candidate for Ensemble pour la République , and Damien Toumi, candidate for the National Rally (RN).
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA841947
- Timothée Houssin
He was born in 1988 in Lille. He is a member of National Rally. He previously served as a municipal councillor of Barentin and Louviers. Houssin was elected to the Regional Council of Normandy in 2015 and re-elected in 2021. He represents the 5th constituency of the Eure department in the National Assembly since 2022 and was re-elected in 2024.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA793632
- Abdelkader Lahmar
He was born in 1971 in Lyon in an Algerian family. Since 1995, he teaches economics and management at the Les Canuts vocational high school in his hometown of Vaulx-en-Velin. He is a member of the La France insoumise party. He was elected as the deputy of elected of Rhone’s 7th constituency in 2024.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA841729
- Amelia Amal Lakrafi
She was born in 1978 in Casablanca, Morocco. Since 2017, she has been serving as the member of the tenth district of French people living abroad, which includes Africa and the Middle East And was elected on the La République En Marche! (LREM) list.
- Hanane Mansouri
Born in 2000. Mansouri is of Moroccan origin. She is a former president of Les Jeunes Républicains (Young Republican-the student wing of The Republicans)in Isère, and is a member of the Union Nationale Inter-universitaire.. She was elected for Isère’s 8th constituency from the Republican party. She is the youngest Muslim MP in French National Assembly. Speaking to French outlet Interviews, she said that during her campaign, she faced racist and anti-Arab insults by the leftists but she prefered to fight as a strong candidate for her right-wing alliance alongside true patriotic universalists.
- Naïma Moutchou
She was born in 1980. Her parents migrated from Morocco to France She practiced business and media law for nearly ten years. Abefore joining La République En Marche! (LREM). She has been serving as a member of the French National Assembly since the 2017 elections, representing the department of Val-d’Oise. In addition to LREM, Moutchou joined the Horizons party [7] in 2021. Since 2022, Moutchou has been serving as a vice-president of the National Assembly, under the leadership of president Yaël Braun-Pivet
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA720908
- Sabrina Sebaihi
She was born in 1981 in Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) to Algerian immigrant parents. She became the Member of Parliament for Hauts-de-Seine’s 4th constituency in the 2022 French legislative election from the the green movement and the ecologist list in 2024 .
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA795808
https://www.tsa-algerie.com/algerie-france-sabrina-sebaihi-la-deputee-qui-fait-avancer-les-choses/
- Estelle Youssouffa
She was born in 1978 in Châtenay-Malabry, France. She did her schooling from Mayotte until she obtained her baccalaureate at Mamoudzou High School. She then attended the IUT of Tours where she was trained in journalism, then continued her studies at the University of Quebec in Political Science. She became a journalist and television host, working for LCI, TV5 Monde, Al Jazeera English, BFM TV and iTélé. In 2022, she joined the Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories group. Since 2022, she has been serving as the MP for Mayotte’s 1st constituency and was re-elected in 2024.
https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/deputes/PA796078
References:
[1] La France Insoumise is a left wing political party which was launched in 2016 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who was then a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former co-president of the Left Party (PG). This party aims to implement the eco-socialist and democratic-socialist programme L’Avenir en commun (A Shared Future).
[2] Renaissance or LREM is a liberal, centrist political party which was originally called En Marche. In September 2022, it adopted its current name (The Republic on the Move). The party was established on 6 April 2016 by Macron, a former Minister of Economy, who was later elected president in the 2017 elections with 66.1% of the second-round vote.
[3] The Socialist Party is a centre-left to left-wing political party in France. It holds social democratic and pro-European views. The PS was for decades the largest party of the “French Left” and used to be one of the two major political parties under the Fifth Republic, along with the Rally for the Republic in the late 20th century, and with the Union for a Popular Movement in the early 2000s. It replaced the earlier French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO) in 1969 and is currently led by First Secretary Olivier Faure. The PS is a member of the Party of European Socialists, Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.
[4]Also known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 National rally (FN), The party was founded in 1972 from the Ordre Nouveau (far-right, neo-fascist movement). Jean-Marie Le Pen was its founder and leader until his resignation in 2011. Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012.
[5] The Republicans is a liberal conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 as the re-incorporation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then-President of France, Jacques Chirac.
[6] The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It is the largest in terms of votes, and second largest in terms of membership numbers.
[7] Horizons is a centre-right political party in France which was founded in October 2021 by Édouard Philippe, at the time mayor of Le Havre and former Prime Minister of France. The party was created with the purpose of attracting centre-right support for Emmanuel Macron for the 2022 French presidential election. It seeks to appeal to the secular and pro-European right, with a “social calling”.
