Education
University of Picardie Jules Verne.
General jurist minister university professor
University of Picardie Jules Verne.
Previously she was Minister of Women"s Affairs (16 May 2012 to 25 August 2014, Ayrault government and Valls government), Minister of City Affairs (2 April 2012 to 25 August 2014, Valls government), Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports (2 April 2012 to 25 August 2014, Valls government), and Government spokesperson (16 May 2012 to 31 March 2014, Ayrault government). She was the spokesperson of Ségolène Royal"s campaign during the 2007 French presidential election and again in 2009 for the 2011 French Socialist Party presidential primary. Since 2008, she has been a councillor of the city of Lyon, responsible for major events, youth and community life.
Second in a family of seven children, Najat Belkacem was born in the Moroccan countryside in 1977 in Bni Chiker, a village near Nador in the Rif region.
Her grandmothers were respectively Spanish and Algerian. She graduated from the Institut d"études politiques de Paris (Paris Institute of Political Studies) in 2002.
She joined the Socialist Party in 2002 and the team of Lyon mayor Gérard Collomb in 2003, leading actions to strengthen local democracy, the fight against discrimination, promotion of citizen rights, and access to employment and housing. Elected to the Regional Council of Rhone-Alpes in 2004, she chaired the Culture Commission, resigning in 2008.
In 2005, she became adviser to the Socialist Party.
In February 2007 she joined Ségolène Royal"s campaign team as a spokeswoman, alongside Vincent Peillon and Arnaud Montebourg. In March 2008 she was elected conseillère générale of the Rhône department in the cantonal elections with 58.52% of the votes in the second round, under the banner of the Socialist Party in the canton of Lyon-XIII. On 16 May 2012, she was appointed to French President François Hollande"s cabinet as Minister of Women"s Rights and spokeswoman for the government. She supports having the French government force Twitter to filter out hate speech that is illegal under French law, such as speech that is homophobic.
Regarding same-sex marriage in France, she has stated that its legalisation is a matter of "historic progress".