François Piquemal

François Piquemal (born 28 December 1984) is a French politician and educator who was elected to represent the Haute-Garonne's 4th constituency in the 2022 legislative election. A member of La France Insoumise, Piquemal ran as a candidate of the left-wing New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES) coalition in 2022.^[1] Piquemal previously served as a municipal councilor in Toulouse, Occitania.^[2]

François Piquemal
Piquemal in 2023
Member of the National Assembly for Haute-Garonne's 4th constituency
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 June 2022
Preceded by	Mickaël Nogal
Personal details
Born	(1984-12-28) 28 December 1984 (age 40) Besançon, France
Party	La France Insoumise
Occupation	Teacher

Biography

Piquemal was born in Besançon. He lives in Toulouse's Patte d'Oie (fr) neighborhood.

Piquemal is a history and geography teacher.^[3] At the time of his election to the National Assembly, Piquemal served as a member of the Toulouse municipal council.^[4]

2022 National Assembly election

Piquemal officially entered the race for Haute-Garonne's 4th constituency on September 17, 2021.^[3] Piquemal made ending homelessness in France a top campaign priority, stating "It is not acceptable" for people to "die in the streets" in France.^[5] As a candidate, Piquemal was a vocal supporter of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's 2022 presidential candidacy.^[3]

In the second round of the contest, Piquemal faced real estate company owner Marie-Claire Constans of the Ensemble Citoyens party.^[5] Piquemal won the contest with 59.26% of the vote versus the 40.74% received by Constans.^[6]

Political views

As a candidate, issues central to Piquemal's program were ending homelessness, boosting consumer spending power through price freezes, and environmentalist policies.^[5] Amid the historic heat wave in France in June 2022, Piquemal criticized Macron's leadership and stressed that there is an "urgent need to act" on climate.^[7]

Following his victory, Piquemal stated that his movement was following in the "footsteps of Jean Jaurès".^[6]

Refusal to shake hands

Piquemal drew international attention when, during voting to choose the president of the French National Assembly, he declined to shake the hand of secretary and National Rally MP Flavien Termet.^[8] A number of other MPs had also declined, but Piquemal chose to play Rock paper scissors with Termet in place of shaking his hand. He chose 'scissors', thereby making Termet's handshake appear to be a losing play of 'paper'.

Anti-white comments

François Piquemal is the LFI candidate for the 2026 municipal elections in Toulouse and declared that he did not want white candidates among the top candidates of his list.^[9]