Raquel Garrido

Raquel Garrido (born 23 April 1974) is a French politician. Representing La France Insoumise (LFI), she was elected to the National Assembly for Seine-Saint-Denis's 5th constituency in the 2022 French legislative election. Garrido was born in Valparaíso, Chile. She was born seven months after Augusto Pinochet's right-wing coup d'état and her left-wing parents were interned. The family were exiled and lived in Toronto before settling in Marly-le-Roi in Yvelines, Île-de-France.Garrido became vice president of SOS Racisme when she was 22. As a student activist in the Union nationale des étudiants de France – Indépendante et démocratique, she met Alexis Corbière, with whom she had three daughters.In 2008, amidst the backdrop of the world financial crisis, Garrido left the Socialist Party for Jean-Luc Mélenchon's new Left Party. She cited the financial crisis and the success of new leftist parties in Latin America as a reason to abandon the social democratic former party. In the 2012 French legislative election, she stood in the Second constituency for French residents overseas (Latin America and the Caribbean), coming fourth with 8.6% of the vote.Garrido became spokesperson of Mélenchon's new La France Insoumise (LFI) in 2017 but left this role the same year due to questions of impartiality over her role as a political pundit on Les Terriens du dimanche ! on C8. She said that she would opt for the punditry, as the party's size would provide a replacement, while there were few left-wing commentators on television. She and Corbière were also subject to scrutiny over continuing to live in public housing in the city of Paris while he represented a constituency in nearby Seine-Saint-Denis and their household income was over the limit; they were ordered to leave by the city council.In the 2022 French legislative election, Garrido ran for LFI within the New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES) in Seine-Saint-Denis's 5th constituency. She defeated 20-year incumbent Jean-Christophe Lagarde of the Union of Democrats and Independents by 53.5% to 46.5% in the run-off.In November 2023, Garrido was suspended by LFI for four months for allegedly spreading false information about its members. She had criticised Mélenchon's leadership, and criticised her punishment as being exactly that given by the party to its former coordinator Adrien Quatennens for a domestic violence conviction.