1. In 2014, opinion polling found Najat Vallaud-Belkacem to be among the most popular politicians in the country.
15 Facts About Najat Vallaud-Belkacem
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Second in a family of seven children, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem was born on 4 October 1977 in the Moroccan countryside in Bni Chiker, a village near Nador in the Rif region.
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Najat Vallaud-Belkacem's grandmothers were respectively Algerian and Spanish, both married to Moroccans.
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Najat Vallaud-Belkacem spent her early years growing up on her grandparents' farm.
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In 1982 Najat Vallaud-Belkacem joined her father, a construction worker, with her mother and elder sister Fatiha.
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Najat Vallaud-Belkacem graduated from the Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris in 2002.
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Najat Vallaud-Belkacem joined the Socialist Party in 2002 and the team of Lyon mayor Gerard Collomb in 2003, leading actions to strengthen local democracy, the fight against discrimination, promotion of citizen rights, and access to employment and housing.
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In February 2007, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem joined Segolene Royal's presidential campaign team as a spokeswoman, serving alongside Vincent Peillon and Arnaud Montebourg.
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In 2009, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem served as Royal's spokesperson ahead of the 2011 French Socialist Party presidential primary, this time alongside Delphine Batho.
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On 16 May 2012, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem was appointed by President Hollande as Minister of Women's Rights and spokeswoman for the government in the Ayrault government and later in the First Valls Government.
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Najat Vallaud-Belkacem was chosen to serve as Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Research on 27 August 2014, becoming the first woman to hold the role.
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Najat Vallaud-Belkacem supported the presidential campaign of Benoit Hamon in the 2017 French presidential election.
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In March 2018, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem joined research and polling firm Ipsos as CEO of its Global Affairs division.
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In 2020, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem was appointed as an affiliated professor at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Ben Guerir, Morocco.
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Najat Vallaud-Belkacem supports having the French government force Twitter to filter out hate speech that is illegal under French law, such as speech that is homophobic.