Emmanuelle Ménard
Emmanuelle Ménard | |
---|---|
Member of the National Assembly for Hérault's 6th constituency | |
Assumed office 21 June 2017 | |
Preceded by | Élie Aboud |
Personal details | |
Born | Emmanuelle Duverger 15 August 1968 Lille, France |
Nationality | French |
Political party | Independent |
Spouse(s) | |
Occupation | Journalist |
Emmanuelle Ménard (née Duverger, 15 August 1968) is a French journalist and politician who has represented the 6th constituency of Hérault in the National Assembly since 2017. Known for her work on issues related to freedom of speech, she has notably taken position in favour of repealing the Gayssot Act.
Career
A native of Lille, Ménard worked for the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHM).
In 2008, she created, with her husband, the publishing house Mordicus, and promoted a book of interviews between Dieudonné M'bala M'bala and Bruno Gaccio under the title Can we say everything?, echoing the book by Raoul Vaneigem, Nothing is sacred, everything can be said, criticizing the Gayssot Law, prefaced by Robert Ménard himself. In 2015, she published a book to describe the same law as a "catechism, which like all catechisms is made to be profaned", defending the freedom of expression of Holocaust deniers.
In October 2012, she is the editor-in-chief of the Medias news magazine, co-founded by her husband Robert Ménard, and Boulevard Voltaire news website in April 2016.
She resigned upon her election as a parliamentarian.
An Independent whose candidacy was supported by the National Front (FN, renamed National Rally in 2018), Debout la France (DLF), the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP) and the Movement for France (MPF), she largely defeated The Republicans (LR) candidate and outgoing member of the National Assembly Élie Aboud in the 2017 legislative election.
In February 2018, alongside Marie-France Lorho, she proposed a bill which would recognise the 1790s killings in Vendée by troops under the command of the National Convention as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
In July 2019, as Greta Thunberg visited the National Assembly, Ménard posted the following message on Twitter: "Too bad spanking is prohibited, she deserves a good one". It led to a temporary suspension of her account, after which Ménard stated that "political correctness no longer just makes the law, it pulls out the baton".
She took office as a municipal councillor of Béziers on 18 May 2020.
Personal life
Since 2003, she has been married to Robert Ménard, who has been Mayor of Béziers since 2014.