Raquel Garrido (; born 23 April 1974) is a French-Chilean politician. Representing

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 ...

(LFI), she was elected to 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 ...

for Seine-Saint-Denis's 5th 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 ...

Biography

Garrido was born in

Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...

, Chile. She was born seven months after

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

's right-wing

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

and her left-wing parents were interned. The family were exiled and lived in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

before settling in

Marly-le-Roi Marly-le-Roi () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the administrative region of Île-de-France, France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Marly-le-Roi was the location of the Château de Marly, t ...

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.Île-de-France , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +01:00 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +02:00 , blank_name_sec1 = Gross regional product , blank_info_sec1 = Ranked 1st , bla ...

. Garrido became vice president of

SOS Racisme SOS Rascime () is a movement of NGOs which describe themselves as anti-racist. The oldest chapter of SOS Racisme was founded in 1984 in France, and it has counterparts in several other European countries or regions. Its Norwegian branch, which ...

when she was 22. As a student activist in the , she met

Alexis Corbière Alexis Corbière (; born 17 August 1968) is a French politician. A member of La France Insoumise (FI), he has been member of the National Assembly for the 7th constituency of the Seine-Saint-Denis department since 2017. Corbière is also a sp ...

, with whom she had three daughters. In 2008, amidst the backdrop of the world financial crisis, Garrido left 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 ...

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 ...

's new Left Party. She cited the financial crisis and the success of new leftist parties in Latin America as a reason to abandon the

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

former party. In the

2012 French legislative election Legislative elections took place on 10 and 17 June 2012 (and on other dates for small numbers of voters outside metropolitan France) to select the members of the 14th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic, a little over a month after the Fr ...

, she stood in the

Second constituency for French residents overseas The second constituency for French residents overseas (French: ''Deuxième circonscription des Français établis hors de France'') is one of eleven constituencies representing French citizens living abroad. It was created by the 2010 redist ...

(Latin America and the Caribbean), coming fourth with 8.6% of the vote. Garrido became spokesperson of Mélenchon's new

(LFI) in 2017 but left this role the same year due to questions of impartiality over her role as a political pundit on ' on C8. She said that she would opt for the punditry, as the party's size would provide a replacement, while there were few left-wing commentators on television. She and Corbière were also subject to scrutiny over continuing to live in public housing in the city of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

while he represented a constituency in nearby

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobigny ...

and their household income was over the limit; they were ordered to leave by the city council. In the

, Garrido ran for LFI within the

New Ecological and Social People's Union The New Ecological and Social People's Union (french: Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale, link=no, NUPES) is a left-wing alliance of political parties in France. Formed on May Day 2022, the alliance includes La France Insoumise (LFI ...

(NUPES) in Seine-Saint-Denis's 5th constituency. She defeated 20-year incumbent

Jean-Christophe Lagarde Jean-Christophe Lagarde (born 24 October 1967) is a French politician serving as president of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) since 2014. He succeeded Jean-Louis Borloo after a short interim by Yves Jégo. Lagarde has been the member ...

of the

Union of Democrats and Independents The Union of Democrats and Independents (french: Union des démocrates et indépendants, UDI) is a Centrism, centre to Centre-right politics, centre-right list of political parties in France, political party in France and former Electoral alliance ...

by 53.5% to 46.5% in the run-off. In November 2023, Garrido was suspended by LFI for four months for allegedly spreading false information about its members. She had criticised Mélenchon's leadership, and criticised her punishment as being exactly that given by the party to its former coordinator

Adrien Quatennens Adrien Quatennens (; born 23 May 1990) is a French politician who has represented Nord's 1st constituency in the National Assembly since 2017. From June 2019 until September 2022, he was also the party coordinator of La France Insoumise (LFI). ...

for a

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

conviction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrido, Raquel 1974 births Living people People from Valparaíso People from Marly-le-Roi Chilean emigrants to Canada Chilean emigrants to France Naturalized citizens of France French people of Chilean descent Socialist Party (France) politicians Left Party (France) politicians La France Insoumise politicians Members of Parliament for Seine-Saint-Denis Deputies of the 16th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic