Who is Malika Sorel, former close friend of François Fillon, who joins the RN?

Essayist Malika Sorel is campaigning for the National Rally in the European elections in June 2024.

This is a significant political gain for Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella: Malika Sorel was named number 2 on the RN list for the European elections in June 2024. This intellectual is not yet really known to the general public, but she should be quickly put forward by the far-right party, as its profile is an asset for the RN.

Malika Sorel was born in France to Algerian parents. After a childhood spent in France, she lived for around fifteen years in Algeria where she obtained an engineering degree from the Polytechnic School of Algiers. She also studied at Sciences-Po from where she graduated in 1996. According to La Dépêche, Ms. Sorel began her professional career “in the recruitment of executives specialized in the field of high technologies.”

On the political side, Malika Sorel has always been close to the right. She first worked with Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister from May 2005 to May 2007 under the presidency of Jacques Chirac. Under the five-year term of Nicolas Sarkozy, Ms. Sorel was a member of the High Council for Integration in 2009. She was then close to the Republican party. Notably through her unwavering support for François Fillon during the 2017 presidential election. As France Info points out, she remained at his side even when a large number of right-wing elected officials turned away from Mr. Fillon after the scandal of his wife's fictitious employment.

In an interview with Le Figaro on Sunday March 24, Malika Sorel said she was an “orphan” since the defeat of Mr. Fillon in 2017. Despite her proximity to the LR, in 2017 she already approved certain ideas of the National Rally. As Libération recalls, Ms. Sorel estimated that "Marine Le Pen is facing a certain number of realities", while she still supported François Fillon. A position that she reaffirmed on Sunday to Le Figaro where she declared: “I believe that the National Rally is the only party which defends the superior interests of France and the French people”.

Malika Sorel is the author of several essays on immigration and integration. In 2007, she published her first work The Puzzle of Integration published by Milles et une nuits. His essay French Decomposition (Fayard) published in 2015 received the “Honneur et Patrie” prize from the Legion of Honor. Her latest work Les dindons de la farce was published by Albin Michel in 2022. The essayist also has a blog where she maintains a press review of her contributions and posts other publications. Libération indicates that in the early 2010s, some of these publications on its blog were taken up by the site “Riposte Laïque”, an online space with Islamophobic positions.