Endometriosis fighter
In announcing the new strategy for the management of endometriosis, Emmanuel Macron wished to thank the “Doctor Chrysoula Zacharopoulou for her commitment”. This surgeon and gynecologist by training had asked Julie Gayet to found, in 2015, the association Info-endometriosis in order to sensitize society and the media to this disease associated with very painful menstruation.
Chrysoula Zacharopoulo, 45, is delighted that a “disease that affects one in ten women in all aspects of [sa] life becomes a national cause. What do the critics on the financial vagueness surrounding several points and on the unfavorable opinion of the government concerning the adoption in Parliament of a resolution to recognize endometriosis as a long-term condition matter? “I refuse to politicize everything”, underlines the one who, from 2009, claims to have been shocked by the silence of French hospitals on the subject.
A woman belatedly invested in politics
Born in Sparta, the daughter of a soldier, this Franco-Greek Europhile first studied and lived for fifteen years in Italy before settling in France in 2007. It was through her commitment to the fight once morest endometriosis that it is beginning to gravitate around political circles. In 2014, she met Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, then Minister for Women’s Rights. A surgeon at the Saint-Mandé military hospital, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou is not on the card but continues her associative lobbying from 2017 with Marlène Schiappa, the Secretary of State in charge of equality between women and men.
ticking the boxes ” civil society ” and “transnational”, she was spotted by La République en Marche and propelled at the time of the 2019 Europeans. She has since sat in the centrist and liberal group Renew while continuing to practice in the hospital one day a week. At the height of the health crisis, she also gave a helping hand to the Covid-19 units.
An opponent of illiberal democracies
This MEP defines herself as a “humanist”. Worried regarding the “xenophobia of the right and the extreme right”, it deploys the Macronian rhetoric of the cleavage between ” progressive “ and “nationalists”. An admirer of Gisèle Halimi, she denounces the drastic restrictions on the right to abortion in Poland and the erosion of press freedom in Hungary. As such, it supports the idea of making European aid conditional on respect for the rule of law. When asked regarding French migration policy, sometimes criticized by the left wing of Macronie, the MP eludes: “The question of immigration is European. Macron has real leadership. »
A leader of Ovax with a mixed record
Chrysoula Zacharopoulou has been since April 2021 co-chair of the board of shareholders of Covax, a public-private program led by international institutions such as the WHO. Supposed to fight once morest the vaccine divide between rich and poor countries, this organization, described as “absolute mess” by Yannick Jadot, is criticized for its broken promises. The 2021 goal was to deliver 2 billion doses to countries in need. In fact, only 600 million doses were delivered. Aware of supply difficulties and the lack of vaccine awareness in countries such as “Rwanda or Senegal”, she defends all the same “unprecedented mechanism of international solidarity”.