Paula Forteza


Paula Forteza is a French politician, who was elected to the National Assembly of France in the 2017 French legislative election, as a member of La République En Marche!. She represents the Second constituency for French residents overseas. Head of Cedric Villani list in the 19th arrondissement of Paris for the 2020 municipal elections, she left LREM during the campaign.

Early life and education

Forteza was born in Paris to Argentine parents, where she lived for seven years before moving to Argentina, where she studied at the Lycée Franco-Argentin Jean Mermoz.
Forteza studied political science at Torcuato di Tella University before working on a social protection program for the government of Buenos Aires. In 2014 she returned to France to study at Sciences Po. She graduated with a Master of Public Administration in 2016 and began working for Etalab, a Prime minister service in charge of the open-data and open-government policy.

Political career

Forteza was chosen as a candidate for La République En Marche! in May 2017 for the second constituency for French residents overseas. On 17 June she was elected with 60.92% of the vote, defeating Sergio Coronado of Europe Ecology – The Greens. The abstention rate was 87.53%, compared to 84.45% in the 2012 elections.
In parliament, Forteza serves as member of the Committee on Economical Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, she is part of the parliamentary friendship groups with Argentina and Brazil.

Legislative activity

In August 2017, Forteza is designated to be responsible for the bills aiming to give back trust in political life.
In 2018, she co-created, with French deputy Matthieu Orphelin, a website allowing citizens to ask questions, some of which later asked to the French Government.
The same year, she is nominated rapporteur of the Personal data protection bill which integrates into French law the General Data Protection Regulation. On this occasion, she publicly denounced the "commercialization of personnal datas".
During 2019 spring, she is in the running for the position of Minister of State for Digital, finally vested in Cedric O: according to Le Figaro, she would have been "more centrered on revitalizing democracy with digital tools, or protecting personal datas".
In October 2019, she is nominated co-rapporteur of a parliamentary mission on the "digital identity".
In January 2020, she remits to the Government a parliamentary report of the French strategy for quantic technologies, containing 37 public recommendations out of 50.

Critics and departure from LREM

On January 28, 2020, she announces her departure from La République en marche on a French national radio: having explained the lack of consideration for left and ecological issues, she expresses a deep disagreement on the political method used by the party, which "rewards friendships more than competencies". She became a non-attached member at the French National Assembly and called for the creation of a new "ecologist and progressist" political group. In May 2020, she was one of the 17 initial members of the Ecology Democracy Solidarity group.

2020 municipal elections in Paris

She supports the dissenting candidacy of Cédric Villany for the 2020 municipal elections in Paris, and campaigns in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. She obtained 5,82% of the vote during the first ballot.