Eva Joly

Eva Joly (French: [eva ʒɔli]; born Gro Eva Farseth; 5 December 1943) is a Norwegian-born French juge d'instruction (magistrate) and politician for Europe Écologie–The Greens. She represented that party as a candidate for the presidency of France in the 2012 elections. She also served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2019.

Early life

Born in the neighbourhood of Grünerløkka, Oslo in 1943 during Norway's occupation by Nazi Germany, she was raised by a tailor father and a hairdresser mother and grew up in what was then a working-class district of the inner city. She moved to Paris at 20 to work as an au pair. There she married the son of the family who employed her, Pascal Joly (now deceased), and adopted her middle name 'Eva', which is easier to pronounce in French.

Career

Anti-corruption activist

While working as a secretary, Joly studied law at night school and became a magistrate when she was 38. Joly specialised in financial affairs, and in 1990, she joined the High Court of Paris (Court of Cassation) as an investigating judge.

She campaigned against corruption, in particular taking on, among others, former minister Bernard Tapie and the bank Crédit Lyonnais. Her best known case, however, was that of France's leading oil company, Elf Aquitaine. In the face of death threats, she carried on the case to uncover several cases of fraud, leading to the conviction of tens of persons involved in the oil business. In 2001, she received for this work the award for integrity from the non-governmental organisation Transparency International.