Sarah Knafo

Sarah Knafo (French pronunciation: [saʁa knafo]; born 24 April 1993) is a French magistrate and politician. She was a member of the Cour des Comptes from 2020 to 2024. A member of Reconquête, she was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2024, where she sits with the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group. She is a candidate in the 2026 Paris municipal election to become mayor of Paris.

Biography

Knafo was born in the Parisian suburb of Les Pavillons-sous-Bois to a family of Sephardic Jews ancestry who had roots in Algeria and Morocco. Her grandparents moved to France in the wake of the Six Day War. Her mother works as a hypnotherapist and her father is a businessman. Knafo moved to Paris as a teenager.

Professional career

Knafo graduated with a degree in public administration at Sciences Po after a baccalauréat in 2011 and then economics and political science at Panthéon-Sorbonne University in 2014. During her studies, she worked as an intern at the French embassy in Libya (at the time relocated to Tunisia). During that time, she also conducted research into illegal immigration routes from Africa into Europe. In 2020, she began working as a civil servant in Seine-Saint-Denis and became a magistrate.

In 2021, L'Express reported that she has been advising Éric Zemmour, a friend of her family, in the event of putting his name for the candidacy for the 2022 French presidential election. L'Obs magazine also claimed she had facilitated meetings between Zemmour and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, as well as Laurent Wauquiez and Marion Maréchal. In October 2021, she was named as one of Zemmour's campaign directors for his presidential campaign bid and Reconquête party.