Souad Zitouni | |
Office: | Member of the National Assembly for Vaucluse's 1st constituency |
Term Start: | 30 March 2020 |
Predecessor: | Jean-François Cesarini |
Birth Date: | 23 April 1974 |
Birth Place: | Boukadir, Algeria |
Nationality: | French |
Party: | La République En Marche! |
Alma Mater: | Aix-Marseille University |
Profession: | Lawyer |
Termend: | 21 June 2022 |
Successor: | Joris Hébrard |
Souad Zitouni (Arabic: سعاد زيتوني; born 23 April 1974 in Boukadir) is a French lawyer and politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as a member of the National Assembly from 2020 to 2022,[1] representing the Vaucluse's 1st constituency.
Zitouni was born in 1974 in Algeria, she was four years old when her family moved to France, to Marseille.[2]
Zitouni studied at Aix-Marseille University,[3] where she obtained a master's degree in public law and a specialized graduate diploma in local government management. She continued her training in law school. She practiced law from 2004 at the Avignon Carpentras bars.[4]
Zitouni began her political activism with Ecology Generation, before joining the Democratic Movement.[2] In 2008, she was a candidate for her party in the 2008 municipal elections at Pontet, on the Ambition Le Pontet list led by Michel Bouyol: in sixth position, she was not elected.[5]
Ten years later, Zitouni joined La République En Marche! and campaigned for Emmanuel Macron during the presidential election of 2017. She was a candidate in the legislative elections in Vaucluse's 1st constituency, as substitute candidate for Jean-François Cesarini. They were elected, with 58% in the second round against a candidate from the National Front.[6] Cesarini died on March 29, 2020, and Zitouni automatically succeeded him the next day.[7]
In parliament, Zitouni joined the LREM group.[8] She served on the Committee on Sustainable Development and Regional Planning.[9]
In 2020, Zitouni joined En commun (EC), a group within LREM led by Barbara Pompili.[10]
Zitouni lost her seat in the first round of the 2022 French legislative election.[11]
In 2020, Zitouni went against her parliamentary group's majority and abstained from an important vote on a much discussed security bill drafted by her colleagues Alice Thourot and Jean-Michel Fauvergue that helps, among other measures, curtail the filming of police forces.[12] [13]