Marine Le Pen, candidate of the National Rally for the presidential election, poses as a candidate sensitive to the “cause of women”. Throughout this campaign, his speeches are punctuated with references to the issue of street harassment, the financial difficulties of single mothers, or the “gynecological deserts”.
She even published on the eve of March 8 a “letter to French women” to affirm her “sensitivity to the feminine cause”. This strategy started in 2012, reinforced in 2017, has already produced effects on the female electorate, the number of Marine Le Pen voters having increased. However, his statements are often out of step with his program, and even more so with the votes of the deputies and MEPs of the National Rally.
- The fight against gender-based and sexual violence
His speech. At a meeting in Perpignan on April 7, Marine Le Pen outlines some of the “specific problems” women, the “harassment in the public space with street harassment, obscurantist injunctions, when it is not forced marriages on our territory, honor killings, or even excision”.
This discourse linking sexual violence – a theme at the heart of the #MeToo movement, whose scope Marine Le Pen recognizes but fears the excesses – to security and immigration is constant at the RN and is found in the presidential program. This, despite the numerous studies indicating that the majority of abused women are abused by someone close to them, from all social backgrounds.
His program. While none of the sixteen booklets that make it up is specifically devoted to women, several paragraphs deal with violence against them in the “security” booklet. “Special measures will be taken to better prevent and repress violence committed against spouses or ex-spouses”, we read there. The promise of “Restore the freedom of women and young girls to circulate without being bothered or threatened, in skirts or dresses if they wish” is made there. Finally, it is said that “persons convicted of acts qualified as sexist insults by the penal code will be entered in the file of criminals and sex offenders”.
The votes. In 2018, during the vote on the so-called Schiappa law, aimed at strengthening the fight against sexual and gender-based violence – a text deemed to fall short of expectations by feminist associations sparked heated debates between the different political camps – RN deputies became little hear. On the day of adoption, MP RN Ludovic Pajot abstains, while the other five, including Marine Le Pen, are absent.
At European level, after Parliament noted the insufficient progress made in the fight against sexual harassment, a resolution was adopted in 2021 to create training against harassment within the institutions of the European Union. European Union. Almost all MEPs from Marine Le Pen’s party, with the exception of one, absent, voted against this text. “Sexual harassment must be severely punished, but […] almost all men [ont] appropriate behavior. Men are not all potential culprits in need of re-education by feminists”advances the frontist MEP Annika Bruna to justify her vote.
His speech. “Women’s health is declining in our country”repeated Marine Le Pen several times over the course of this campaign, such as when she was interviewed by LCI and Elle as part of the program “Face aux Françaises”. She then discusses the difficulty of access to care and deplores the “gynecological deserts”proposes increasing the number and responsibilities of midwives, talks about endometriosis “hard to detect”. The candidate also proposes to reimburse contraception beyond 25 years, in other words as long as necessary.
His program. His promises are not there. In the “emergency plan for health”, it promises to fight against medical deserts thanks to strong financial incentives for caregivers and to increase the number of nursing homes. The proposals are, on the other hand, much more numerous, and detailed in the chapter dealing with the birth rate, approached from a perspective not medical, but economic and nationalist. The “family” booklet thus details a series of tax measures and social assistance exclusively reserved for French families, in order to encourage the birth rate.
This same booklet ends with the promise of a “three-year moratorium on social issues”, rather than a summary of the positions of the RN on reforms such as marriage for all or, more recently, the opening of medically assisted procreation (PMA) to all women. Marine Le Pen then spoke out against this reform.
In these booklets, there is no question of the right to abortion, a major and emblematic fight of feminists since the 1970s. If Marine Le Pen declares at the microphone of Brutin March 2022: “I don’t want there to be any ambiguity, never in my life have I wanted there to be a step back on the possibility for women to have abortions”she also repeats that she is against extending access to abortion from twelve to fourteen weeks.
The votes. On the subject of endometriosis, the elected RNs followed suit: on January 13, like the 110 other deputies present, Nicolas Meizonnet voted in favor of the resolution proposed by La France insoumise (LFI) recognizing endometriosis as a condition long term.
On the other hand, when the bill aimed at extending the abortion period from twelve to fourteen weeks was discussed in the Assembly last February, the elected RNs tabled an amendment against. In the final reading, only Catherine Pujol and Emmanuel Blairy (whose mandate runs from January to June only) are there and are among the forty-seven elected to vote against, out of 191 present.
Same in Brussels. In November 2020, the EU Parliament adopts a resolution strongly condemning the near-total ban on abortion in Poland, on the grounds that this decision “endangers the health and lives of women” and represents a setback to their rights. The resolution was adopted by 455 votes for, 45 against, including the twenty-three MEPs from the National Rally. A year later, when Parliament reiterated its condemnation, the majority of RN MEPs again rejected the text, perceived as an attack on the “Sovereignty of Poland”. “The EU is thus pursuing its dearest wish to bend Poland to the progressive and federalist agenda of Brussels and thus deny its sovereignty”, justifies the deputy Thierry Mariani.
- Women in precarious situations and professional equality
His speech. In the name of the defense of purchasing power, Mme Le Pen has made some promises to increase the incomes of precarious women. During her meeting on April 7 in Perpignan, she thus addressed the “yellow vests” as much as the “humiliated workers” and evokes the “career and equal pay issues”.
His program. There is nothing more specific about the working conditions of precarious women or about equal pay. It talks about a health plan that would involve “raise the salaries of nursing staff in line with their work”, a measure that can be considered favorable to certain feminized professional categories (90% of the nursing assistant profession is made up of women, according to https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/6047793? summary=6047805″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener” title=”New window”>Insee). In the chapter devoted to the family, it is further proposed to “double support for single mothers raising children, while strengthening controls to prevent fraud” ; a measure according to the principle of “national preference”.
The votes. When debates on equal pay and the professional difficulties of women were held in the Hemicycle, the RN deputies were discreet. In the National Assembly, these deputies did not take part in the vote on the Rixain law on professional equality, a consensual text voted in December 2021. They did, however, worry on several occasions about the revaluation of careers as a nurse, in particular by questioning the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, on this subject.
In the European Parliament, the opposition of RN elected representatives to the provisions aimed at accelerating professional equality has been constant. In January 2020, the vast majority of MEPs led by Jordan Bardella voted against a resolution recalling that women’s incomes are still “abnormally weak compared to those of men” in the European Union and encouraging the Member States to intensify their efforts to remedy the inequalities with regard to retirement or part-time work.
The sequence repeats itself in March when Parliament calls on member states to adopt the EU’s third action plan on equality between men and women. The resolution is concerned about a “retreat of gender equality and women’s rights” and stresses the importance of better financing and evaluating the results of such a plan. All RN deputies abstain. RN MEP Annika Bruna says she shares the aims of the text “when it comes to combating feminicides, child marriages, genital mutilation, human trafficking, or even sexual violence”, but considers it undesirable to “condition almost all aid to the EU on actions promoting gender equality”. She laments that “ mastery of demography and migrations” and the rise of Islam – according to her “a strong threat to women” – are not discussed further.
“A woman in the highest office of the state? Our country is ready”, launches Marine Le Pen to her audience on April 7, at a meeting in Perpignan. The day before, during a interview at TF1she still insisted on her gender:
“A woman at the head of France is a woman who will be attentive to ensuring that women can go out in the street without being attacked or harassed, she is a woman who will be attentive to equal pay between men and women. »
No question, however, of feminizing the title: Marine Le Pen wants, if she is elected, to be called “madam president”, as she explains during the LCI program “Face aux Françaises”. A posture consistent with the work of elected RNs in the Assembly. Among the very rare legislative proposals made by this camp in connection with gender equality is that, in 2020, which aims to “ prohibit the use ofinclusive writing by any public or private person benefiting from a public subsidy..
Marine Le Pen also told the magazine Current wife that she did not want to keep the ministry devoted to equality if she were elected, judging that this question was interministerial. This ministry was first established in 1974.