French left-wingers in the European Parliament have renamed a room dedicated to the memory of former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher because, they claimed, she was a “violent woman”.
Euro MPs Emma Fourreau and Anthony Smith, who sit with the Left group in the assembly, replaced Thatcher’s name, which hung over a meeting room in Strasbourg, with that of British unionist Anne Harper. She was an activist for National Women Against Pit Closures during the miners’ strikes of the early 1980s.
❌ Thatcher n’a pas sa place au Parlement européen !
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On a renommé la salle Margaret Thatcher au nom de Anne Harper, syndicaliste féministe opposée au thatchérisme.
Thatcher incarne le fanatisme néolibéral qui nuit tant aux travailleur·euses, elle ne mérite pas les honneurs ! pic.twitter.com/5imT5bOskg
— Emma Fourreau (@emma_frr) June 18, 2025
“Thatcher has no place in the European Parliament!” wrote Fourreau on X on June 18. “The Margaret Thatcher Room was renamed after Anne Harper, a feminist trade unionist who opposed Thatcherism.”
She continued: “Thatcher embodies the neoliberal fanaticism that is so harmful to working people; she doesn’t deserve the honours!”
In a video posted by Fourreau, she explained to those asking about the new name that Thatcher was a “violent woman”.
There was little support for the stunt online: “Even if one might not be a fan of her policies (and I doubt that many pro-Europeans are nostalgic for Thatcher), I’m not sure that wanting to remove from Parliament all trace of the first woman elected prime minister in Europe is the best feminist signal to send,” wrote one X user.
X user Robert Dupont wrote: “Mrs Thatcher, with somewhat heavy-handed methods, brought Great Britain into the post-industrial era by saving her country’s economy.
“That’s exactly what we’re missing in France: A woman or a man with balls and a backbone.”
Même si on peut ne pas être fan de sa politique (et je doute que beaucoup de pro-européens soient nostalgiques de Thatcher), pas sûr que vouloir delete du Parlement toute trace de la première femme élue Première ministre en Europe soit le meilleur signal feministe à envoyer. https://t.co/nKsTh7a6ex
— Mepassistant (Quentin) (@mepassistants) June 19, 2025
Another posted: “Do you have any mandate from the European Parliament administration to carry out this kind of action, or do you consider that your ideas should be implemented simply because of their outstanding merit?”
The miners’ strike of 1984-1985 was a major industrial dispute in the UK, primarily focused on the planned closure of coal mines and the resulting job losses.
The strike, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB) and the then-Conservative government under Thatcher, lasted almost a year and ended in defeat for the miners.
