Caroline Fiat (born 28 January 1977) is a French politician who has represented the 6th constituency of the

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

since

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. She is a member of

La France Insoumise La France Insoumise (FI or LFI; ; "France Unbowed") is a left-wing populist political party in France, launched in 2016 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former co-president of the Left Party (PG). It aim ...

, having previously been an activist in the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

. Since 29 June 2022, Fiat has held one of the six vice presidencies of the National Assembly. Outside of politics, she works as a medical

caregiver A caregiver or carer is a paid or unpaid member of a person's social network who helps them with activities of daily living. Since they have no specific professional training, they are often described as informal caregivers. Caregivers most commo ...

Biography

Since 2009, Caroline Fiat has worked as a caregiver in several private-sector Établissements d'hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes (EHPADs) in

Grand Est Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten; Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administrat ...

. She is the first caregiver to sit in the National Assembly. Fiat has also been an ambulance driver, telemarketer, commercial assistant and executive assistant during her career.

Entry into politics

Fiat grew up in a family of unionists of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and members of the

(PCF). In the

2012 French presidential election Presidential elections in France, Presidential elections were held in France on 22 April 2012 (or 21 April in some overseas departments and territories), with a second round Two-round system, run-off held on 6 May (or 5 May for those same territ ...

, she voted "halfheartedly" for

Jean-Luc Mélenchon Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who was a member of the National Assembly for the 4th constituency of Bouches-du-Rhône from 2017 to 2022. He led the ''La France Insoumise'' group in the Nation ...

, expressing disapproval for the "loudmouth and lecturing side" of his personality. Later, Fiat changed her opinion of him, joining first

Ensemble! Ensemble!, officially Ensemble – Movement for a Leftist, Ecologist, and Solidary Alternative (), is a French left-wing political party, defining itself as anti-capitalist, anti-racist, feminist and eco-socialist. It was launched in November 2 ...

and then

(LFI), which was founded by Mélenchon in 2016. Ideologically, Fiat defines herself as a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Member of the National Assembly

Fiat was elected as a

Member of the National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

in Meurthe-et-Moselle's 6th constituency during the

2017 French legislative election Legislative elections in France were held on 11 and 18 June 2017 (with different dates for voters overseas) to elect the 577 members of the 15th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. They followed the two-round presidential election won by ...

, receiving 61.36% of the vote in the second round against Cédric Marsolle of the National Front (FN), who had come first in the first round. On 27 June 2017, Fiat ran for the presidency of the National Assembly, supported by LFI and the PCF. She won 30 votes, finishing in last place behind

Laurence Dumont Laurence Dumont (born 2 June 1958) is a French politician of the Socialist Party who has been serving as Member of Parliament of the National Assembly from 1997 until 2002 and again between 2007 and 2022, representing the 2nd constituency of Ca ...

with 32 votes,

Laure de La Raudière Laure may refer to: * ''Laure'' (film), a 1976 Italian erotic film in the Emmanuelle universe * ''Doxocopa laure'', commonly known as the Laure, a butterfly People * Laura (given name) (French variant) * Laure (art model) (fl. 1859–1867), Frenc ...

with 34 votes,

Jean-Charles Taugourdeau Jean-Charles Taugourdeau (born July 17, 1953 in Dreux) was a member of the National Assembly of France The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament un ...

with 94 votes and the

François de Rugy François Henri Goullet de Rugy (; born 6 December 1973) is a French politician who served as President of the National Assembly from 2017 to 2018 and Minister of Ecological and Solidary Transition from 2018 to 2019. Since 2007, he has repres ...

, who won with 353 votes. In September 2017, Fiat was sued by one of her former parliamentary assistants, who contested their firing from Fiat's staff and demanded a resumption of his job contract. Fiat served alongside

Monique Iborra Monique Iborra (born 8 March 1945 in Maison-Carrée, Algeria) is a member of the National Assembly of France. She represents the Haute-Garonne department, and was most recently elected in 2017 as a member of La République En Marche!, previou ...

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a l ...

(LREM) as the co-rapporteur of a fact-finding mission on EHPADs, which published its conclusions in March 2018. The report recommended a doubling of the number of caregivers and an investment of 8 billion more euros in EHPADs over four years. On 1 February 2018, she spoke in favour of a bill on the right to euthanasia and assisted suicide which was ultimately suspended in the National Assembly. Fiat also introduced a bill aiming to ban excess medical fees aiming to improve access to healthcare in 2019. In addition to being a full member of the

La France Insoumise group The La France Insoumise group (french: Groupe parlementaire LFI-NUPES) is a parliamentary group in the National Assembly founded following the 2017 legislative election. It is led by Mathilde Panot since 2021, having previously been led by Jea ...

in the National Assembly, Fiat is part of the Republican and Socialist Left (GRS), which was founded in 2019 by

Emmanuel Maurel Emmanuel Maurel (born 10 May 1973 in Épinay-sur-Seine), is a French politician. He was a member of the board of the French Socialist Party. He was a candidate for the leadership of the Socialist Party but lost against Harlem Désir, winning a ...

and

Marie-Noëlle Lienemann Marie-Noëlle Lienemann (born 12 July 1951, in Belfort) is a French politician who served as Member of the European Parliament for the North West of France. Until 2018, she was a member of the Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socia ...

after splitting from the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS). On 26 February 2020, Fiat received the 2019 Transparency in Pharmaceutical Policy Award for France. The award was given to her by the Observatory for Transparency in Pharmaceutical Policy in recognition of her efforts to promote transparency during debate over a social security appropriations bill for 2020. Upon the beginning of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

in March 2020, Fiat returned to her work as a caregiver. For almost a month, she worked at night in an intensive care unit at the Regional University Hospital Centre of Nancy while performing her parliamentary duties in the afternoon. During this period, Fiat observed what she described as a deep decline in public hospital conditions and signed a petition in ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'' on the topic. She also proposed at the start of 2021 to grant the same "post-COVID" pay bonus to caregivers in medical-social establishments as those in hospitals. On 28 July 2020, during debate on a bioethics bill that would open

assisted reproductive technology Assisted reproductive technology (ART) includes medical procedures used primarily to address infertility. This subject involves procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), cryopreservation of gametes o ...

to all women, she gave a widely discussed speech where she related her own experiences on the topic. On 10 May 2022, Fiat was re-nominated by La France Insoumise as its candidate for Meurthe-et-Moselle's 6th constituency in the

2022 French legislative election Legislative elections in France were held on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 members of the 16th National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic. The elections took place following the 2022 French presidential election, which was held in A ...

s. On 14 May 2022, she officially launched her campaign for re-election in

Blénod-lès-Pont-à-Mousson Blénod-lès-Pont-à-Mousson (, literally ''Blénod near Pont-à-Mousson'') is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in northeastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department The following is a list ...

. Fiat announced Julien Hézard, the Communist secretary-general of the Meurthe-et-Moselle CGT and deputy mayor of Blénod, as her designated substitute.

Works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fiat, Caroline 1977 births Living people Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic La France Insoumise politicians Women members of the National Assembly (France) 21st-century French women politicians People from Verdun Politicians from Grand Est Deputies of the 16th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Members of Parliament for Meurthe-et-Moselle