It's a beautiful image, imposed by the force of circumstances.
This Friday afternoon, for the fourth and final day of the Paris Council, the elected representative of the Ecologists group, Léa Vasa, spoke in the hemicycle accompanied by her eleven-week-old child.
“I thank you for letting me come into the session with my little girl who is not yet three months old and who is not yet looked after, who was falling asleep in my arms.
As every parent knows, this is the most critical moment and therefore absolutely not the time to put her down or entrust her.
So thank you very much!
» she began during her speech.
When @VasaLea speaks at the Paris council with her baby in her arms.
Nothing so touching since the wedding in a baby carrier celebrated by my deputy at the time @Boniface_NCho!
pic.twitter.com/X94UbpRzsq
— Ariel Weil (@ArielWeilT) February 9, 2024
“It is not always easy to reconcile the functions of an elected official with life as a parent.
Perhaps this Council can write into its regulations the possibility of coming to a session with your newborn, especially when he is breastfed, because it is a whole organization to rethink,” she then wanted to suggest, under the tender eyes of his seatmates.
She didn't want to miss her first speaking engagement
Her little girl is in fact 11 weeks old as she confides to Le Parisien.
“I had been participating in the Council of Paris for three days, through breastfeeding and naps.
But this Friday, I had to speak and she was falling asleep in my arms.
The bailiffs and the presidency clearly saw the problem.
But it’s not a danger so they let me in, says Léa Vasa.
Even if it is not officially authorized by the regulations.
» And to point out that certain Parliaments have now authorized the presence of these smaller ones in their hemicycles.
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Defending herself from any “political move”, the elected official admits to having “hesitated to speak with my daughter in my arms, because I did not want to mix the public and the private”.
Having just been appointed advisor to the canals by Mayor Anne Hidalgo last October, Léa Vasa explains that “it was my first speaking engagement, so I didn’t want to miss it”.
And to recall that the day before, Thursday, it was his colleague Anouch Toranian, “who is a young mother, who had a nanny problem.
This happens, there can be hazards.
» She then had to find someone close to look after her child.
An image reminiscent of the fact that an Italian elected official, Licia Ronzulli, caused a sensation in the fall of 2010 on the benches of the European Parliament by coming accompanied by her baby wrapped in a baby sling.
It was then for her “a way to defend women’s rights and to campaign for a better balance between private and professional life”.