Under Barnier, the Ministry for Gender Equality became a secretariat of state, and ended up in the hands of Salima Saa, a businesswoman who had long been a member of the UMP, whose legitimacy on the subject is questionable.
Equality between women and men, declared a “great national cause” by Emmanuel Macron in 2017, is losing ground in the new Barnier government, which is clearly right-wing. The ministry, held until today by Aurore Bergé, has been downgraded to the rank of Secretary of State. And it is Salima Saa who will now occupy this position, placed under the supervision of a man, Paul Christophe, appointed this Saturday, September 21, Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Equality between Men and Women.
Like many of those in the brand new Barnier government, Salima Saa, 53, is little known to the general public. Her predecessor, Aurore Bergé, MP for the 10th constituency of Yvelines, had been in difficulty since she was implicated in the investigative book by Victor Castanet, the Ogres. According to him, she had close contacts with the lobby of private, for-profit daycare centres, even though she had stated the opposite under oath during a commission of inquiry.
Now in this position, Salima Saa has her work cut out for her: the Mazan rape trial has largely highlighted the devastating consequences of chemical submission. A government mission on this subject was launched in April with Modem MP Sandrine Josso at its head, herself a victim of this process, but was brought to a sudden halt by the dissolution. Another major project: relaunching the work, also at a standstill since the dissolution, intended to improve the lot of single-parent families.
Never elected but always on the right
Born in Soissons (Aisne), and for a time deputy sales director at Veolia, Salima Saa has never been elected, but has gravitated towards the right since the beginning of the 2010s. Close to Nicolas Sarkozy, she is part of the “young shoots”, regularly brought together at that time by the then President of the Republic, according to The FigaroAfter sending a spontaneous application to the Minister of the City, Maurice Leroy, she became president of the National Agency for Social Cohesion and Equal Opportunities in February 2011, a public administrative establishment, replaced in 2014 by the General Commission for Territorial Equality.
The following year, during the UMP congress, she supported Jean-François Copé, then in 2015 she sided with Bruno Le Maire during the primary of the right and the center and became one of the spokespeople for his campaign. Emmanuel Macron appointed her prefect of Corrèze in 2020, where she remained for two years. She had just joined the French embassy in the United Kingdom as an “internal cooperation advisor” just a few weeks ago, according to her LinkedIn account. However, there was no mention of any experience or commitment that would have led to the choice of entrusting her with gender equality.
Source: www.liberation.fr
