Legislative elections 2024: who is Huguette Bello, this elected official proposed by Fabien Roussel to occupy the position of Prime Minister ?

His name was proposed on Wednesday evening July 10, 2024 by Fabien Roussel, during a meeting of the New Popular Front. The president of the regional council of Réunion could be the left's new avenue to find an agreement on the candidacy for the post of Prime Minister. But who is Huguette Bello, this elected communist supported by rebels and environmentalists ?

"FIGure that Roussel proposed your name". It was Jean-Luc Mélenchon who was the first to call Huguette Bello, while the left has been struggling to agree on a name to propose for Matignon since Monday July 8. On Wednesday evening, the main leaders of the New Popular Front met to continue negotiations, which had reached an impasse due to the opposition of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Olivier Faure, as Le Monde recalls. Around 1:30 a.m., the national secretary of the Communist Party proposed this name: Huguette Bello. But who is this woman little known to the general public ?

An experienced elected official

Huguette Bello is first and foremost a woman with experience in politics, as ex-socialist vice-president Valérie Rabault pointed out on X (formerly Twitter ) : "She knows the political workings of the National Assembly well. She has an outspokenness that is good for democracy and solid convictions. She knows how to negotiate."

A member of the Réunion Communist Party since she was 18 and until 2012, she founded the Pour la Réunion party the same year, as reported by L'Humanité. This former schoolteacher subsequently held numerous elected positions. Mayor of Saint-Paul, in Réunion, from 2009 to 2014 and then from 2020 to 2021, she is also a regular at the National Assembly, having sat there for 23 years between 1997 and 2020. In 2018, she proposed an amendment to include "the protection of seas and oceans" in the Constitution, which was adopted. In the region, which she has chaired since 2021, her hobbyhorses are education and the fight against inequalities. For example, she campaigns for the creation of a vocational high school on the island and for free transport and school canteens.

Il faut avancer plus vite et dans l’unité !

C’est pourquoi j’ai proposé Huguette Bello, parmi d’autres.

Présidente de la Réunion, expérimentée, députée de nombreuses années, étudions cette possibilité.

Continuons de travailler ensemble à la meilleure solution pour notre pays. pic.twitter.com/biVKgQizsc

— Fabien Roussel (@Fabien_Roussel) July 12, 2024

A left-wing candidate hailed by the macronie

But the 73-year-old former MP is also a proposal likely to bring the bosses of the French left into agreement. Although she is not officially attached to any NFP party, Huguette Bello has sat alongside the communists several times. More recently, she supported Jean-Luc Mélenchon in his last two candidacies for the presidential election and appeared in the last symbolic position on the LFI list for the 2024 European elections.

A rather consensual profile therefore, and those even in the presidential camp. Ouest France thus specifies that Gabriel Attal had, for example, described it as “great republican” and Aurore Bergé, minister responsible for equality between women and men, “fighter for human dignity and women's rights” . Which seems to confirm Fabien Roussel's statements on BFMTV this Friday, July 12: “Huguette has this ability to bring people together, to speak to everyone”.

A “proposal that can achieve consensus” ?

Once her name was proposed, political reactions were not long in coming. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, close to the elected official from Réunion, praised: “a racialized woman and anti-racist feminist”. Manuel Bompard validates “a proposal that can achieve consensus” on BFMTV. Among the Greens, “We are taking the proposal seriously”, summarizes a manager interviewed by Le Monde.

Only the socialists are holding back, considering that their leader Olivier Faure would be the only candidate accepted by Macron's party. They also criticize Huguette Bello for abstaining in 2013 during the vote on marriage for all. On Saturday, July 13, the New Popular Front still has not agreed on a potential candidate for the post of Prime Minister.