Nadine Morano (; born 6 November 1963 in Nancy) is a French politician of the Republicans who has been serving as

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

since 2014. She previously was a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

and a minister.

Early life

Morano was born on 6 November 1963 in Nancy, France. Her father was a truck driver. Her mother, Monique Generelli, was a switchboard operator, daughter of a

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

ese mason from

Verbano-Cusio-Ossola The province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (, ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Piedmont region of Italy. It was created in 1992 through the fusion of three geographical areas which had previously been part of the province of Novara. The ar ...

Political career

Morano served as a member of the

from 2002 to 2008, representing

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a '' département'' in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. Its prefecture and largest city is Nancy and it borders the departments of Meuse to the west, Vosges to the south, ...

. In parliament, she was a member of the Committee on Cultural Affairs (2002-2007) and the Defense Committee (2007-2008). Morano served as the Deputy Minister for Apprenticeship and Vocational Training under the

Minister of Labour Minister of labour (in British English) or labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...

, Employment and Health,

Xavier Bertrand Xavier René Louis Bertrand (; born 21 March 1965) is a French politician; he is president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France since the 2015 regional elections. Earlier in his career, Bertrand was Minister of Health from 2005 to 2007 ...

. She was previously Secretary of State for Family in the government of François Fillon on 18 March 2008.

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–present

Morano was elected

in the 2014 European elections, representing East France. She has since been serving on the

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

. In addition to her committee assignments, she is a member of the Parliament's delegation for relations with the

Pan-African Parliament The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union. It held its inaugural session in March 2004. The Parliament exercises oversight, and has advisory and consultative powers, ha ...

(PAP). Ahead of the

2015 French regional elections Regional elections were held in France on 6 and 13 December 2015. At stake were the regional councils in metropolitan and overseas France including the Corsican Assembly and inaugural seats in the Assembly of French Guiana and Assembly of Ma ...

, the Republicans' chair

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...

removed Morano – then considered one of his staunchest allies – from the party's list after she state that France was a "white race" country that must stay that way. Later that year, Morano announced her intention to compete for a presidential nomination in the Republicans' primaries for the 2017 presidential elections. She later supported François Fillon as her party's candidate before urging him to withdraw his bid amid the so-called Fillon affair. In the Republicans' 2017 leadership election, she endorsed

Laurent Wauquiez Laurent Timothée Marie Wauquiez (; born 12 April 1975) is a French politician who has presided over the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes from 2016 to 2024. He is a member of The Republicans (LR), which he led from 2017 to 2019 follow ...

. Ahead of the 2022 presidential elections, Morano publicly declared her support for Michel Barnier as the Republicans' candidate. In 2023, the Republicans' chairman Éric Ciotti appointed Morano as member of his shadow cabinet and put her in charge of the party's immigration policies. She was re-elected as an MEP following the 2024 European Parliament election in France.

Controversy

Morano is a frequent user of

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

whose outspoken style and running commentary are a frequent source of mockery. French daily ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'' has created a web page, dubbed the "Moranator," that generates real phrases the politician has used and allows visitors to post them to their

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

pages. In September 2015, Morano quoted General

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

on ''

On n'est pas couché ''On n'est pas couché'' was a French talk show broadcast on France 2 on Saturdays at 11 p.m. and hosted by Laurent Ruquier. It was produced by Ruquier and Catherine Barma. It first aired on 16 September 2006; after fourteen seasons, it ended on ...

'', saying that "France is a Judeo-Christian country, of white race". This resulted in her removal as head of the

Les Républicains The Republicans (, ; LR) is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed in 2015 as the refoundation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been establishe ...

(the former UMP) list for the regional elections in Meurthe-et-Moselle. In 2019, Morano faced allegations of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

when she criticized the way government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye dressed as "circus clothes", adding that Ndiaye became a French citizen "only" three years before, "clearly with big gaps over French culture, unworthy of her government post". Gilles Le Gendre, who chaired the La République En Marche group in the

at the time, called on Morano to withdraw her comments and apologize or be prosecuted. In 2020, Morano stated that French actress

Aïssa Maïga Aïssa Maïga (born 5 May 1975) is a Senegal-born French actress, director, writer, producer, and activist. Maïga has worked with major auteurs like Michael Haneke, Abderrahmane Sissako and Michel Gondry, and recently starred in Chiwetel Ejio ...

, who was born in

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, should "go back to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

" if she "was not happy with seeing so many white people in France".

Recognition

On 6 November 2007, Morano was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

in honor of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

Personal life

Morano has been divorced; she has two sons and a daughter. One of his sons, Grégoire, died in July 2024 at the age of 33.

External links

Official web site

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morano, Nadine 1963 births Living people Politicians from Nancy, France French people of Italian descent People of Piedmontese descent The Republicans (France) politicians Union for a Popular Movement politicians Government ministers of France Secretaries of State of France MEPs for East France 2014–2019 MEPs for France 2019–2024 21st-century women MEPs for France The Republicans (France) MEPs 20th-century French women politicians Women government ministers of France Deputies of the 12th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 13th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic MEPs for France 2024–2029