Sacha Houlié (born 8 October 1988) is a French lawyer and politician of former member

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as (EM) and later (, LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022 ...

(LREM 2017-2024) who has been serving as a member of the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

since the 2017 elections, representing the department of Vienne.

Political career

Early beginnings

Having previously been active for 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 ...

, Houlié joined

LREM Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as (EM) and later (, LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022 ...

in 2015. Together with three friends, including Pierre Person, he founded "Jeunes avec Macron" (Young People for Macron) in June 2015.

Member of the National Assembly, 2017–present

In parliament, Houlié has been serving as member of the

Committee on Legal Affairs The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) is a committee of the European Parliament. Responsibilities The main responsibilities of the committee are the interpretation and application of international and European law and the compliance of European U ...

since 2017. In this capacity, he was his parliamentary group's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on 2019 legislation to strengthen the powers of elected municipal officials, particularly in small municipalities. From 2017 until 2018, he was also one of the National Assembly's six vice-presidents, under the leadership of president

François de Rugy François () is a French language, French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis (given name), Francis. People with the given name * François Amoudruz (1926–2020), French resistance fighter * Voltaire, Fran ...

. Within his parliamentary group, he is considered a close ally of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

. Following Pierre Person's resignation from the LREM leadership in September 2020, Houlié joined him and stepped down as well. In 2022, Houlié was elected chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs.

Other activities

École nationale d'administration The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...

(ENA), Member of the Board of Directors

Political positions

Houlié is considered an advocate of an open and "inclusive"

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened ...

. In early 2018, he was one of several LREM member who joined an informal parliamentary working group on

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

set up by Florent Boudié in order to contribute to the government's bill aimed at better organising and supervising the financing of the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

faith in France. In May 2018, Houlié co-sponsored an initiative in favour of legalizing

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), and cryopreservation of ga ...

(ART) for all women (singles, heterosexual couples or lesbian couples). Amid efforts to contain the

COVID-19 pandemic in France The COVID-19 pandemic in France has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have reached France on 24 January 2020, when the first COVID-19 case in both Europe and France was identified in Bordeaux. T ...

, Houlié opposed the government's proposal for a state-supported “StopCovid” contact-tracing app project, arguing it could amount to "undemocratic state surveillance." Also in 2020, he went against his parliamentary group's majority and abstained from an important vote on a much discussed security bill drafted by his colleagues Alice Thourot and Jean-Michel Fauvergue that helps, among other measures, curtail the filming of police forces. Since 2023, his political views have become increasingly

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

, affirmed and endorsed.

Controversy

In mid-2019, French farmers vandalized Houlié's office in

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

, in an effort to protest against his support for the

Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA; French: ''accord économique et commercial global'', AECG; German: ''Umfassendes Wirtschafts- und Handelsabkommen'') is a free-trade agreement between Canada and the European Union and its ...

(CETA) between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. In April 2021, the inscription "Death to pigs" was found written on the building's facade. In August 2021, the office was set on fire.Poitiers : la permanence du député LREM Sacha Houlié incendiée, une enquête ouverte
''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'' 20 August 2021.

Bibliography

* "Sacha Houlié, ce député en pétard qui veut que ça roule" in ''Hallier tout feu tout flamme'',

Jean-Pierre Thiollet Jean-Pierre Thiollet (; born 9 December 1956) is a French writer and journalist. He is also affiliated with the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions, a European trade union. Career Thiollet attended a school in Châtelleraul ...

, Neva Editions, 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houlie, Sacha 1988 births Living people Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 16th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 17th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Renaissance (French political party) politicians People from Deux-Sèvres Politicians from Nouvelle-Aquitaine University of Poitiers alumni Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni 21st-century French lawyers