Valérie Boyer

Boyer was born on 11 June 1962 in Bourges, France. Her parents were born in Algeria and Tunis during French Colonial occupation. They were pieds noirs who fled from Algeria in 1962.[3]

Ahead of the presidential election in 2017, Boyer served as campaign spokesperson for François Fillon.[4] In the Republicans’ 2017 leadership election, she endorsed Laurent Wauquiez. Following his election, she was appointed the party's deputy secretary general in charge of relations with civil society.[5]

In parliament, Boyer serves as member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[6] In addition to her committee assignments, she is a member of the parliamentary friendship groups with Jordan, Armenia and South Sudan.

Boyer first drew attention in 2008 when she drafted a law which would make the promotion of extreme dieting a crime punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of some $45,000; it passed the French lower house, but later failed in the Senate.[7] In 2009, she proposed a bill to punish advertisements which include anorexic models.[8] She proposed to fine offenders with up to 30,000 euros.

On 22 December 2011, the National Assembly adopted a bill presented by Boyer, penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide. This decision caused a controversy between France and Turkey. In the days that followed, she claimed to have received death and rape threats. No one was actually charged with these allegations. Turkish hackers took down the French Senate's website in order to protest the bill.[9][10]

In 2019, Boyer opposed a bioethics law extending to homosexual and single women free access to fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) under France's national health insurance; it was one of the campaign promises of President Emmanuel Macron and marked the first major social reform of his five-year term.[11]

Boyer is a divorced mother of three.[12]