Arlette Laguiller

Arlette Yvonne Laguiller, born 18 March 1940 at Les Lilas, is a French politician who from 1973 to 2008 was the spokeswoman and best-known leader of Lutte Ouvrière, a Trotskyist party, and its presidential nominee. She worked as a clerical employee at a bank and belonged to the CGT trade union until she was expelled in 1965 for her Trotskyist views; she joined Lutte Ouvrière in 1968 and led a bank workers' strike in 1974 that began at Crédit Lyonnais. She stood for the French presidency in 1974, 1981, 1988, 1995, 2002 and 2007, the first woman to do so. Her best result was fifth place with 5.72 percent of the vote in 2002, and in 2007 she finished ninth with 1.33 percent, then for the first time since 1981 endorsed the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal in the second round. Her opening formula, Travailleuses, travailleurs, became widely caricatured on French television.