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POLITICS

National Front pulls in ‘record membership’

After a year of unprecedented electoral success, Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, anti-EU National Front party is attracting more members than ever before in the 42-year-old party’s history, French media has reported.

National Front pulls in 'record membership'
The National Front party has a total of 83,000 members – the highest number in the history of the party. Photo: Philippe Huguen/AFP

The National Front party has a total of 83,000 members – the highest number in the history of the party, according to the Huffington Post, citing an “internal party source”. 

Since 2011 the party has seen a surge in support, with around 20,000 new members each year, a trend that coincides with Le Pen taking the reigns of the party and leading an effort to make it mainstream.

In contrast, the governing Socialist party, which counted 170,000 members in December 2013, has seen a decline in recent months.

The centre-right UMP party claims to have around 268,000 members, according to Metronews. And the centrist UDI claims to have around 29,000.

In September the National Front celebrated its third political triumph when it won two seats in the French Senate elections, a first for the far-right party.

In May during the European Parliament elections the National Front was the most popular party snagging 25 percent of the vote and capturing a third of France’s 74 seats in Strasbourg.

The National Front’s success in the local elections in March were also historic, seeing the party capture 11 mayorships and some 1,200 seats on town councils across the country.

SEE ALSO: Le Pen: France needs to take control of borders

The Socialist government, meanwhile, has suffered a series of setbacks in recent months, notably the political crisis provoked by Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg’s outspoken speech against the government’s economic policy.

Just nine days into the newly reshuffled cabinet and the government was rocked by the revelation that French trade Minister Thomas Thévenoud had failed to pay taxes.

Then there were the explosive revelations from Francois Hollande’s ex-partner Valérie Trierweiler’s book about her time as the unofficial first lady, the most damaging of which was that Hollande despised the poor, calling them the “toothless”. 

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POLITICS

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

France's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill forbidding workplace discrimination based on hair texture, which the draft law's backers say targets mostly black women wearing their hair naturally.

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

Olivier Serva, an independent National Assembly deputy for the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe and the bill’s sponsor, said it would penalise any workplace discrimination based on “hair style, colour, length or texture”.

Similar laws exist in around 20 US states which have identified hair discrimination as an expression of racism.

In Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued guidelines against hair discrimination in schools.

Serva, who is black, said women “of African descent” were often encouraged before job interviews to change their style of hair. Backers also say that men who wear their hair in styles like dreadlocks are also affected.

The bill was approved in the lower house National Assembly with 44 votes in favour and two against. It will now head to the upper Senate where the right has the majority and the vote’s outcome is much less certain.

‘Target of discrimination’

Serva, who also included discrimination suffered by blondes and redheads in his proposal, points to an American study stating that a quarter of black women polled said they had been ruled out for jobs because of how they wore their hair at the job interview.

Such statistics are hard to come by in France, which bans the compilation of personal data that mention a person’s race or ethnic background on the basis of the French Republic’s “universalist” principles.

The draft law does not, in fact, contain the term “racism”, noted Daphne Bedinade, a social anthropologist, saying the omission was problematic.

“To make this only about hair discrimination is to mask the problems of people whose hair makes them a target of discrimination, mostly black women,” she told Le Monde daily.

A black Air France air crew member in 2022 won a 10-year legal battle for the right to work with braided hair on flights after a decision by France’s highest appeals court.

While statistics are difficult to come by, high-profile people have faced online harassment because of their hairstyle.

In the political sphere they include former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye, and Audrey Pulvar, a deputy mayor of Paris, whose afro look has attracted much negative comment online.

The bill’s critics say it is unnecessary, as discrimination based on looks is already banned by law.

“There is no legal void here,” said Eric Rocheblave, a lawyer specialising in labour law.

Calling any future law “symbolic”, Rocheblave said it would not be of much practical help when it came to proving discrimination in court.

Kenza Bel Kenadil, an influencer and self-proclaimed “activist against hair discrimination”, said a law would still send an important message.

“It would tell everybody that the law protects you in every way and lets you style your hair any way you want,” she said.

The influencer, who has 256,000 followers on Instagram, said she herself had been “forced” to tie her hair in a bun when she was working as a receptionist.

Her employers were “very clear”, she said. “It was, either you go home and fix your hair or you don’t come here to work”.

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