Jean-Claude Lefort was a French Communist Party deputy from Val-de-Marne from 1988 to 2007.
16 Facts About Jean-Claude Lefort
1.
2.
Jean-Claude Lefort's father, a workman, had taken up arms alongside the Republican faction in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, while his mother was a childcare staffer at a school.
3.
Jean-Claude Lefort was elected deputy from Val-de-Marne's 10th constituency, a seat that he held from 1988 to 2007.
4.
Jean-Claude Lefort eventually became this body's vice-chairman, although it was now named the Mission d'information parlementaire sur le Rwanda, but he found himself disagreeing with the mission report's final conclusions and refused to be counted as a co-author.
5.
In memory of the struggle against fascism in Spain, Jean-Claude Lefort was a founding co-chairman of the Association of Friends of Combatants in Republican Spain, with Jose Fort and Francois Asensi.
6.
Jean-Claude Lefort was rapporteur on economic relations between the European Union and the United States.
7.
Jean-Claude Lefort participated in the World Trade Organization's working meetings from 1999 to 2007.
8.
In May 2009, Jean-Claude Lefort was elected chairman of the France-Palestine Solidarity Association, after the movement's second congress.
9.
Jean-Claude Lefort was the coordinator of the National Support Committee for Salah Hamouri, who would become Lefort's son-in-law in 2014.
10.
One such threat that Jean-Claude Lefort received told him that he should look out for stray bullets.
11.
In October 2013, Jean-Claude Lefort called for Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls to resign over his policies towards the Romani people.
12.
Jean-Claude Lefort reminded the Socialist minister of his own emigration from Spain to flee Francisco Franco's regime, and compared it to the Romani people's situation, suffering discrimination in their countries of origin.
13.
Jean-Claude Lefort referred to himself as "Jean-Claude Lefort, fils de Manouche".
14.
Jean-Claude Lefort quit the French Communist Party on 19 January 2024 "with great pain" following a dispute with his secretary general, Fabien Roussel over the Gaza war.
15.
Jean-Claude Lefort died of cancer on 19 June 2024, at the age of 79.
16.
The ceremony was held on 7 December 2011, at which Jean-Claude Lefort was decorated by Cecile Rol-Tanguy, herself Commander of the Legion of Honour and a recipient of the Resistance Medal, in the presence of the Ambassador of Palestine to France, Hael Al Fahoum, and Pierre Gosnat.