Joëlle Bergeron (born 28 June 1949 in

Charlieu Charlieu (; ) is a commune in the Loire department at the northern end of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. It is home to Charlieu Abbey. Population Twin towns It is twinned with the town of Calne in Wiltshire, UK. See also *Co ...

) is a

French politician The politics of France take place within the framework of a semi-presidential systems, semi-presidential system determined by the Constitution of France, French Constitution of the French Fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "in ...

and

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP). She became a card-carrying member of the National Front when it was created in 1972 and at the end of the 1970s she was responsible for the party's Brittany section.Joëlle Bergeron (Front national)
/ref> Her late husband Daniel Bergeron was a member of the Front National's Central Committee and a candidate for the party in national, regional and local elections and after he died, she took his place as Front National candidate for the 2011 cantonal elections in

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

, obtaining 15.39% of the vote in North Lorient and later standing as candidate for the party in senatorial and National Assembly elections. She was elected as a member of the National Front at the European election in May 2014 but was asked to stand down after she called for European immigrants to be given the right to vote. She refused and instead resigned from the party two days after the election to sit as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

MEP. On 18 June 2014, it was announcedLe Pen candidate joins Farage's new EFD group , EurActiv
/ref> that she was joining the

Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD²) was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) ...

(EFDD) group in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, which is led by

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage ( ; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton (UK Parliament constituency), Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 20 ...

of the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament (both through defect ...

. In spite of her previous 42-year membership of the National Front and her longstanding organizational activities within it, the EFDD stated in announcing her admission to the group that she had "joined the National Front with great hopes but realised that their philosophy was very different" and went on to add that she was an "Anglophile, with the desire for democratic

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

and a respect among different nations".

References

1949 births Living people People from Loire (department) National Rally politicians Europe of Freedom and Democracy MEPs MEPs for West France 2014–2019 21st-century women MEPs for France Jean Monnet University alumni {{France-politician-FN-stub