Member of the French Parliament From 1988 until 2002 and again in 2007, Bachelot was a member of the
National Assembly, representing
Maine-et-Loire's 1st constituency. During that time, she served on the Committee on Cultural Affairs.
Member of the European Parliament From 2004 until 2007, Bachelot served as a
Member of the European Parliament for the
west of France. She was a member of the
European Parliament's
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. She also was a substitute on the
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, a member of the
Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, and a substitute for the Delegation for relations with
Israel.
Career in government From 2007 until 2010, Bachelot served as French
Minister for Health and
Sports. Since French ministers cannot be members of Parliament, she was forced to give up her seat in the European Parliament. During her time in office, Bachelot implemented the planned prohibition on smoking in restaurants, bars, discos, casinos and other commercial pleasure enterprises in 2008. She notably issued a warning against excessive mobile phone use, especially by children. Also in 2008, she publicly endorsed legislation introduced by
Valérie Boyer which would have made the promotion of
extreme dieting a crime punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of some $45,000; it passed the French lower house, but later failed in the Senate. She also encouraged the
National Assembly of France to change the legal age to purchase alcohol in France from 16 to 18; the new law took effect in July 2009. In 2009, Bachelot ordered 94 million vaccines from
Sanofi Pasteur,
GlaxoSmithKline,
Novartis and
Baxter International for the French Government at a cost of 869 million euros (and an option on 34 million additional vaccines in 2010) to fight against the
H1N1 influenza virus; however, less than 10% of French population (about 6 million people) had been vaccinated by the end of the winter. She later canceled over half the flu vaccines ordered to combat the virus, in an effort to head off criticism after reserving too many shots. In June 2010, Bachelot made headlines when she reduced some players of the
France national football team to tears after the French players protested by refusing to practice in the
2010 FIFA World Cup. Domenech, head coach at the time, called the strike "an aberration, an imbecility, a stupidity without name" Monday. During a following meeting, Roselyne Bachelot said "It's your kids, our children, for whom perhaps you will no longer be heroes. It is the dreams of your partners, your friends, your fans that you have perhaps broken. You have tarnished the image of France." In November 2010, Bachelot was appointed Minister of Social Affairs alongside
Marie-Anne Montchamp and
Claude Greff in the third
François Fillon government. She was supposed to reform the public healthcare system for elderly people, but, due to the budgetary restrictions made necessary by the
Great Recession, she had to abandon any reform project. After the victory of
François Hollande at the French presidential election in 2012, she was replaced by
Marisol Touraine. She announced that she would support former Prime Minister
François Fillon for the Presidency of the
Union for a Popular Movement. == Later career ==