Bello began her career in politics in 1983 with the
Communist Party of Réunion, after becoming a deputy mayor of
Saint-Pierre. She remained in the position until 1989, when she became a deputy mayor of
La Possession. She was later elected to the
Departmental Council of Réunion in the
1988 election, and served until returning to the municipal council of Saint-Pierre following the
1995 municipal elections.
Member of the National Assembly In 1997, Bello was selected to stand as a candidate for the Communist Party in the
1997 legislative election, standing in
Réunion's 2nd constituency. She ultimately was elected to the
National Assembly, making history as the first woman to be elected to French parliament from Réunion. In the
2012 presidential election, Bello endorsed
François Hollande of the
Socialist Party. Ahead of the
2012 legislative election, Bello was asked by the Communist Party to abandon her constituency and instead stand for election in
Réunion's 7th constituency. She rejected the party's request and was subsequently expelled from the party. As a result, she founded the
For Réunion political party and was reelected in the 2nd constituency, defeating the Communist Party candidate in the first round with 67% of the vote, avoiding a runoff. She later joined the
Left Front political alliance. In 2013, as a member of parliament, Bello abstained from the parliamentary vote on legalizing
same-sex marriage; however, she later celebrated the first same-sex marriage performed in Réunion later that year, in her capacity as mayor of
Saint-Paul. In 2016, Bello was one of 56 members of parliament who signed the leftist
motion of no confidence against the
El Khomri law. Bello endorsed
Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the
2017 presidential election, and was reelected to the National Assembly in the
2017 legislative election with the support of the Communist Party,
Rézistans Égalité 974, and
La France Insoumise (LFI). She received 57.1% of the vote in the first round, but was not permitted to be elected outright due to the low voter participation rate, and was later elected in the runoff with 73.6% of the vote. In the aftermath of the election, following the general policy proposal of
prime minister Édouard Philippe and
his government, Bello voted against confidence in the government. The following year, she joined other left-wing opposition groups in supporting a motion of no confidence in the aftermath of the
Benalla affair. In March 2018, Bello visited the Cimendef Media Library in Saint-Paul with
Ericka Bareigts, which was recently purchased by the regional government of Réunion. Bello and Bareigts were refused access to part of the building, and subsequently forced their way in with the Cimendef Collective. The Réunion regional government subsequently filed a
trespassing complaint against Bello and Bareigts, which the media referred to as the Cimendef affair. In September 2018, Bello and Bareigts were acquitted by the
Saint-Denis criminal court, and the regional government appealed the acquittal. In 2020, Bello resigned her seat in the National Assembly following her election as mayor of Saint-Paul, due to new legislation regarding the accumulation of
dual mandates. Following her resignation, she was replaced by her deputy
Olivier Hoarau, who soon afterwards also resigned in order to maintain his municipal offices. A by-election was then organized to elect a replacement, won by
Karine Lebon, supported by For Réunion, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and LFI.
Mayor of Saint-Paul During the
2008 municipal election, Bello led a left-wing list in
Saint-Paul, which went on to win the election after receiving 50.2% of the vote in the second round runoff, defeating outgoing mayor Alain Bénard. Following the election, Bello was inaugurated as mayor of Saint-Paul, the second most-populous city in Réunion. Upon her election, Bello became the second woman in Réunion to ever be elected as a mayor, following
Marie-Thérèse de Chateauvieux of
Saint-Leu, and one of the few women in France to be elected as mayor of a city with over 100,000 residents. Bénard, having been beaten by just 138 votes, alleged that Bello's list had illegally distributed leaflets to voters the day before the election, in addition to alleging "maneuvers" on the voting lists and "pressuring" at polling places. Bénard appealed the election results at the administrative court of
Saint-Denis, which decided to invalidate the results. Bello appealed the court's decision before the
Conseil d'État, but her appeal was rejected in August 2009, resulting in the organization of new elections and her removal from the office of mayor. In the interim, the municipal government was led by a special delegation appointed by the
prefect of Réunion. New municipal elections were held in the city in October 2009, where Bello once again defeated Bénard and was able to become reinaugurated as mayor. As mayor, Bello was forced to respond to numerous incidents of
shark attacks on Saint-Paul beaches, particularly following the death of a man following a shark attack in September 2011. The victim's family criticized Bello for her response to the attack, which led to widespread discussion and controversy regarding discrimination against
Zoreilles in Réunion. Bello later lost reelection as mayor in the
2014 municipal election, being defeated by the right-wing list of Joseph Sinimalé. In July 2019, Bello announced that she would again be running in the
2020 municipal election in Saint-Paul, and was supported by a coalition of the left-wing, including the Communist Party, Socialist Party,
The Ecologists, LFI, and the
Left Party. She went on to easily win the first round of voting with 36.6% of the vote, ahead of incumbent mayor Sinimalé of
The Republicans with 19.9% and former mayor Bénard with 14.6%. In the second round runoff, Bello was once again elected mayor after securing 61.8% of the vote. Upon taking office as mayor for a second term, Bello supported a reduction in the salaries of municipal councillors, which the previous administration had increased. The following year, she introduced free
school meals for students in the city, the creation of a police station in the rural inland area of the city, the revision of the city's urban planning scheme and deployment of video surveillance by 2026, and the implementation of a policy which would recruit public sector employees with disabilities. Bello resigned as mayor of Saint-Paul in 2021, following her election as president of the
Regional Council of Réunion, and she was replaced by her first deputy mayor Emmanuel Séraphin.
President of the Regional Council of Réunion in 2023 In 2015, Bello was chosen to lead the left-wing alliance in Réunion into the
2015 regional election, making her the left's candidate for president of the
Regional Council of Réunion. Her list went on to place second in the first round with 23.8% of the vote, behind incumbent
Didier Robert of
The Republicans with 40.4% of the vote. In the second round runoff, Bello negotiated an alliance between her list and
Thierry Robert of the centrist
Democratic Movement and the center-left
Patrick Lebreton, but she placed second with 47.3% of the vote, losing to Robert. Following the conclusion of the election, Bello took her seat in the Regional Council and began to focus on regional politics, resigning her seat in the
Saint-Paul municipal council, where she had been in the opposition since her defeat in the 2014 municipal election. Bello once again led the left-wing in the
2021 regional election as their presidential candidate in Réunion, campaigning on a platform of fighting against inequalities and granting free access to the
car jaune bus system in Réunion. In the first round, Bello once again placed second behind incumbent Robert, receiving 20.7% of the vote to Robert's 31.1%, and both ahead of
Ericka Bareigts of the Socialist Party with 18.5%. In the second round runoff, Bello negotiated a united left electoral alliance with Bareigts, and went on to defeat Robert after receiving 51.9% of the final vote. Her election resulted in Réunion becoming the only region to flip from right-wing to left-wing in the 2021 regional elections. Upon taking office as president of the regional council, Bello became the second woman to serve in the position, following
Margie Sudre. As president, she also took office as vice-president of the Régions de France association, an association of the regional heads of government in France. In 2022, she was elected to the
supervisory board of the University Hospital of La Réunion for a five-year term. Much like in 2017, Bello endorsed Mélenchon in the
2022 French presidential election, and also supported the left-wing
New Ecological and Social People's Union (NUPES) electoral alliance in the
2022 legislative election. Her party For Réunion aligned itself with LFI, the Socialist Party, and The Ecologists to form the Rassemblement réunionnais, which served as the counterpart to NUPES in Réunion. In the event of a NUPES victory in the election and a left-wing government coming into power in parliament, Bello was discussed by the media as a potential
minister in a government led by Mélenchon. In the
2024 European Parliament election in France, Bello was given a symbolic position on the list of LFI, being placed in the unelectable last position, just behind Mélenchon. Following the victory of the left-wing
New Popular Front (NFP) in the
2024 legislative election, Bello was cited by members of the coalition as a potential future candidate for
prime minister of France. She was proposed as the coalition's candidate for prime minister by
Fabien Roussel of the
French Communist Party, which was later supported by LFI and The Ecologists as well. Bello's suggested nomination received some criticism for her past abstention from the vote on the
legalization of same-sex marriage in 2013, and the Socialist Party later announced that they would not endorse her candidacy. Afterwards, Bello stated that she would no longer pursue the coalition's nomination for prime minister. ==Personal life==