Major candidates in 2012 French election: Eva Joly Green Party Born: Gro Eva Farseth in Oslo on December 5, 1943 Background: Born into a m...

Major candidates in 2012 French election: Eva Joly

Green Party

Born: Gro Eva Farseth in Oslo on December 5, 1943

Background: Born into a modest farming family. She came third in a Miss Norway competition at the age of 18, before leaving her native country for France where she worked as an au pair. It was while with this family that she met her husband, Pascal Joly, whom she married in 1967. She later qualified as a lawyer and became an investigating judge, presiding over famous cases such as the Elf corruption trial. Joly has dual Franco-Norwegian nationality.

Family: Separated from her husband Pascal, who later committed suicide in 2001. She has two children, a son and a daughter.

Political parties: Joined the Green Party in 2009 and was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Ile de France.

Political career: As above.

Current mandate(s): MEP and Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Development

Outstanding feature: Joly has been mocked in the media and by other politicians for her strong Scandinavian accent and foreign origins. She provoked outrage last year by suggesting France’s military parade for its July 14, Bastille Day celebrations should be scrapped and replaced with a “citizens’ parade”.

Main proposals

Stop all nuclear energy production in France by 2020 and derive 40 percent of the country's energy needs from renewable sources by that date.

Increase minimum income benefits by 50 percent, freeze rents for three years and introduce new tax rates of 60 percent for those earning 100,000 euros or more a year and 70 percent for those earning over 500,000 euros.

Impose a a minimum 17 percent corporate tax rate on multinational companies.

Replace the European Stability Pact on budget discipline with an Ecological and Social Development Pact, with financial, environmental and social targets.

(Agencies)