A major French disability advocacy organisation has instructed its members to avoid any association with certain right-wing political parties, with potential expulsion for those who stand as candidates or hold elected office under their banners.
APF France handicap, formerly known as the Association des Paralysés de France and one of the country’s leading groups supporting people with disabilities, circulated an internal document dated December 13 outlining its position.
French magazine L’incorrect broke the story last week.
The organisation states that the values promoted by parties it classifies as “extrême droite” (far right) are incompatible with its own charter and associative project, which emphasises solidarity, social justice, respect for others and the defence of fundamental rights and freedoms.
The directive explicitly prohibits APF France handicap members from soliciting, meeting, or communicating with candidates or elected representatives from these parties.
It further calls on members not to maintain any links with such groups.
Those who run for office or serve as elected officials under the party labels of the National Rally (RN), Debout la France, or Reconquête face sanctions up to and including exclusion from the association.
The document argues that APF France handicap “cannot subscribe to the vision of society carried by the extreme Right, nor risk endorsing it on the grounds that certain proposals from the same programme might be favourable to people with disabilities”.
To avoid any risk of association, the guidance includes detailed rules, presented in an attached table, advising against soliciting hard-right candidates during election periods, sending them letters to prevent follow-up meeting requests, attending their events, being photographed with them, or using their images in communications.
If protocol required inviting a hard-right elected official to an event, the document recommends considering cancelling said event altogether; the authors note they have already done so in one case by abandoning the planned groundbreaking ceremony for a new establishment. In instances of uninvited appearances by such officials, it is advised to avoid mentioning them.
Founded in 1933, APF France handicap operates around 478 establishments and employs some 15,000 staff, according to its 2024 annual report.
It receives substantial public funding, believed to be around 80 per cent of its €773 million budget and has previously taken public stances against right-winged politics. That included during the 2024 legislative elections when it joined civil society calls to oppose what it called the extreme Right and urged high turnout to defend republican values.
The guidance comes amid approaching local elections and preparations for future national contests against a backdrop of continued strong electoral support for parties on the national-conservative Right in France.
Virginie Bonthoux Tournay, mayoral candidate for Eric Zemmour’s Reconquête in Bordaux, reacted on X saying: “APF France handicap is very ‘inclusive’ 🤔 … in its discourse and ‘exclusive’ in its actions.
“Being [part of] Reconquête, I deduce that I continue to manage on my own with my disabled child, as I’ve been doing for 22 years? So I have the right, as a taxpayer too, to oppose your subsidies! We agree?”
