Joachim Son-Forget
Joachim Jean-Marie Forget, known as Joachim Son-Forget, is a South Korean-born, French politician. Since 2017, he has been a member of the National Assembly, representing the sixth constituency for French residents overseas.
Adopted by a French family as a child, Son-Forget, who holds a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience, was previously active within the Socialist Party and later La République En Marche! until he resigned from the party in late 2018; he has since founded his own political party, Valeur Absolue. He works part-time as a radiologist in Switzerland and has held Kosovar citizenship since 2018.
Biography
Early life
Born in South Korea, Joachim Son-Forget was adopted by a French family as a child and grew up in Langres, before studying in Dijon, Paris and Lausanne.In 2005, he received a Master 2 in cognitive science from CogMaster with cognitive psychologist Stanislas Dehaene. In 2008 he graduated at the end of the second cycle of medical studies at the University of Burgundy. In 2015, he obtained a doctorate MD-PhD in medicine and cognitive neuroscience. The subject of his thesis was "Visuo-vestibular mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness".
Political career
He supported Socialist candidate François Hollande during the 2012 French presidential election. He was secretary of the Geneva section of the French Socialist Party within the Federation of French Abroad, and chairman of the committee of activists of the Party of European Socialists in Switzerland, before taking leave in 2014. In 2017, he joined then-presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's political movement, En Marche!Member of the National Assembly
Son-Forget was the REM candidate in the 2017 French legislative election for the sixth constituency for French residents overseas, which covers Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In the first round, he obtained 63.55% of valid votes, far ahead of his main opponent, then-incumbent Republican candidate Claudine Schmid who got 15.76%. However, the rules of the French electoral system did not secure a first-round victory for Son-Forget as the turnout was only 20.19%. Therefore, a second round was held, opposing only Joachim Son-Forget and Claudine Schmid: it was won by Son-Forget with 74.94% of valid votes, while the turnout was even lower than the first round, with 18.78%. Son-Forget was one of 10 successful candidates for overseas constituencies from either LaREM or its ally the Democratic Movement, over 11 overseas constituencies in total.As a member of the National Assembly, he sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee and serves as president of the France-South Korea Friendship Group and vice-president of the France-Kosovo Friendship Group. With La France Insoumise member Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he co-wrote a report on France's strategy on seas and oceans.
When Christophe Castaner was appointed Minister of the Interior in October 2018, Joachim Son-Forget declared himself a candidate to succeed him as Executive Officer of La République En Marche!, opposing fellow LaREM Member of Parliament Stanislas Guerini, who was forecast as Castaner's likely successor. The internal election was eventually held in November 2018. On 1 December 2018, Son-Forget lost the election to Guerini, with 18% of valid votes.
On 29 December 2018, Son-Forget resigned from both the party La République En Marche! and its parliamentary group amidst [|controversy] about his recent activity on social networks and an online spat with Green Senator Esther Benbassa. Now an independent member of the National Assembly, Son-Forget declared he was still supporting President Macron.
On 31 December 2018, Son-Forget announced he would create his own political party, Je suis français et européen abbreviated as JSFee. The party was renamed in July 2019 as Valeur Absolue.
In January 2019, Son-Forget joined center-right parliamentary group UDI, Agir and Independents. He resigned from the group in December 2019, following controversy about a Twitter post showing him in the company of Marion Maréchal, member of French nationalist party National Rally.
In February 2020, Son-Forget attempted to have :fr:Alexandre Benalla|Alexandre Benalla hired as his parliamentary assistant, but his application was rejected. A few days later, invited on the set of talk show Touche pas à mon poste !, Son-Forget announced he would run for the 2022 French presidential election, claiming he had support from Benalla.
Controversies
During an interview in June 2017, Son-Forget was asked to comment on the controversy surrounding the past use of public funds by Richard Ferrand, then a candidate to preside the REM parliamentary group. After discoursing on the difference between what is legal and what is moral, Son-Forget declared: "I believe we should not have a return to morality, as that would be the beginning of Sharia law." before immediately apologising for "using big words". These comments by Son-Forget, who had just been elected a member of the National Assembly, drew attention from the French press.In September 2018, while travelling funfair personality and entrepreneur Marcel Campion was under controversy for remarks that were considered homophobic, Son-Forget defended Campion on Twitter, arguing his speech was not homophobic. Son-Forget was in turn criticised by other politicians for defending Campion.
On 23 December 2018, on his Twitter account, Son-Forget called out Green Senator Esther Benbassa after she criticised remarks by Brigitte Macron on the yellow vests movement; additionally, Son-Forget made derogatory comments about Benbassa's makeup habits and later addressed "haters" in an informal tone. His online behaviour was criticised by fellow members of REM; Executive Officer Stanislas Guerini announced the party would issue him a "warning letter". Son-Forget, who stated it was his intent to go viral on social media using "cognitive psychology", refused to apologise. After LaREM announced they would examine his "case", Son-Forget declared he was resigning from the party, thus becoming an independent Member of Parliament.
In December 2019, Son-Forget published on his Twitter account a picture of himself in the company of Marion Maréchal, former Member of Parliament and member of French nationalist party National Rally, in what he described as "teasing". This statement was criticized by Jean-Christophe Lagarde, President of parliamentary group UDI, Agir and Independents of which Son-Forget had become a member, who cited "incompatibility" between the core values of his group and those of the National Rally. Son-Forget then resigned from his parliamentary group.
Personal life
Divorced from his first wife, he married his second wife, a Korean, in 2014; he says this is when he began publicly adding his wife's surname, "Son", to his own. He has one daughter.Son-Forget has reportedly been passionate about Kosovo since he was a teenager; he lived there for some time in his late twenties, and has befriended Qëndrim Gashi, who is currently Ambassador of Kosovo to France. A Vice-President of the France-Kosovo relations group in the French National Assembly, he was personally awarded Kosovar citizenship by President Hashim Thaçi in 2018.
Aside from his political and medical career, Son-Forget plays the harpsichord and practices long range shooting in his spare time. He has practiced various martial arts, including karate.