European elections: Garraud, Sanchez, Ridel, Imart… who are the eight deputies from the Occitanie region ?

Jean-Paul Garraud, Sylvie Josserand, Chloé Ridel, Claire Fita. Midi Libre

Among the 81 deputies who will sit in the European Parliament, 8 are from the Occitanie region. Midi Libre presents them to you.

Election results

Jean-Paul Garraud returns to Parliament

RN – Jean-Paul Garrraud, 68, was, in 2018, a defector from the Republicans to the National Rally. Which allowed him to be elected European deputy on the RN list. In fifth position this year on the list led by Jordan Bardella, Jean-Paul Garraud was assured of validating his ticket to Strasbourg. Including act for the ex-magistrate native of Toulouse.

Sylvie Josserand, lawyer, university professor and Nîmoise

RN – Nîmoise, lawyer (for the mayor of Beaucaire Julien Sanchez in particular) and academic (she teaches at the university of Nîmes), the one who said to have put up posters for François Mitterrand in 1988 and committed to the National Rally on the occasion of these European elections. The 26th place he was given almost assured him of his election.

From Beaucaire to Strasbourg for Julien Sanchez

RN – Leader of the RN group in the Occitanie Regional Council (where he sits with Jean-Paul Garraud and France Jamet), Julien Sanchez has also been mayor of Beaucaire since 2014. He will therefore not serve his second term, since he had made it known that he would leave his mandate as councilor if he was elected MEP. Which was beyond doubt given his 17th place on the RN list.

France Jamet, MEP since 2017

RN – Daughter of Alain Jamet, co-founder of the party with Jean-Marie Le Pen, France Jamet grew up in the National Front. Of the elected officials from Occitanie who will join Parliament at the end of this election, she is the one who has been there the longest. The Héraultaise has been sitting there since 2017, when she replaced Louis Aliot, elected to the National Assembly.

Julien Leonardelli, a 36-year-old MEP

RN – Born in Ariège, passed through Perpignan where he joined the National Front in 2004 alongside Louis Aliot, Julien Leonardelli is a departmental delegate of the RN in Haute-Garonne, and regional advisor for Occitanie (where he has served since 2015). At 36, the man who was in 27th position on the list led by Jordan Bardella is now a European MP.

Claire Fita, a figure in the Occitanie regional council

PS – Originally from Graulhet in Tarn (where she is a municipal councilor), Claire Fita, 47, vice-president of the Occitanie Regional Council (in fourth position in the protocol order), is in charge of culture, after having served as budget rapporteur during the previous mandate. Faithful to the president of the Region Carole Delga, she appeared in 12th position on the PS list.

Chloé Ridel, spokesperson for the PS who grew up in Gard

PS – She lived in Nîmes, passed her baccalaureate at Lycée Daudet, and part of her family lives in Lédenon: Chloé Ridel is a Gardoise, who came to the Socialist Party (of which she is one of the spokespersons) after a past as a feminist activist, then an associative one, and founder of a Think Thank on ecology. So many battles that this 32-year-old young woman now intends to bring to Strasbourg.

Céline Imart, the surprise Republican candidate

LR – No one had thought of Céline Imart, little known nationally, to occupy second place on the Les Républicains list . Except the party boss, Éric Ciotti, who thus promoted this native of Toulouse, cereal farmer in Tarn. Who thus campaigned alongside the head of the list François-Xavier Bellamy, or alone, before winning his ticket for the hemicycle in Strasbourg.