A far-right MP in France has suggested that legal brothels should be allowed to reopen, as a means to combat illegal prostitution and poor conditions for sex workers.
Jean-Philippe Tanguy, an MP in the Rassemblement national (RN), is preparing to present a bill to parliament to that effect, in which he recommends that brothels be reopened as cooperatives that are owned and run by the sex workers themselves.
Speaking to the Finance Commission, he said that he had a first draft of the bill in place.
Brothels were legally closed in France by the Marthe Richard law in 1946. Yet, in 2016, the François Hollande government introduced a new law on sex work that decriminalised soliciting and instead sought to penalise clients.
It also looked to provide a pathway out of sex work, and offer social support to workers. The law also opens the way for sex workers to gain a residence permit; an arrangement that is not supported by the far-right.
Precariousness and suffering
Mr Tanguy has said that his proposed bill is motivated by an understanding of sex workers’ daily lives, and a desire to improve their conditions, which had been worsened by the 2016 law, he argued.
He said: “When I was young, I was involved in the work of the [sex worker aid association] Bus des femmes in the Bois de Boulogne [Paris].
“I saw the precariousness, the suffering, the daily horror that these women experienced.”
He also said that the 2016 law criminalises clients, which forces sex workers to hide away and work in squalid and dangerous conditions.
“They get beaten up, sometimes have their throats slit, and no one talks about it. [The current system is] the height of bourgeois hypocrisy,” he said.
Mr Tanguy said that his proposed bill would ensure that sex workers are in control of their own working conditions. He said that “we would probably have to find another name than ‘brothel’, which does not have good connotations”, he said.
The word for 'brothel' in French is maison clos, which literally translates as a 'private' or, more sinisterly, a 'locked house'.
The RN and sex work
Mr Tanguy has said that he has “the support of Marine [Le Pen, leader of the RN] for this initiative”.
Similarly, another RN MP, Sébastien Chenu – who is also a vice-president of the National Assembly – has said that “ensuring the safety of prostitutes has been Marine's position for a very long time”.
Mr Chenu added that many sex workers support “regulation” rather than criminalisation, in reference to a study group held by the Assemblée Nationale when the RN held the presidency, which invited the views of activists including Thierry Schaffauser of Strass (the sex workers’ union the Syndicat du Travail Sexuel).
Ms Le Pen herself has made some previous comments on the sex work profession.
In 2013, she countered Mr Hollande’s law by calling it “a stupid idea”, which would put sex workers in “additional danger”. She instead proposed that France should “send these young women back to their countries of origin” and to “wage a fight to the death against foreign mafia networks” that traffic women and run illegal brothels.
Unpopular proposal
Despite Mr Tanguy’s claim that his law would help sex workers, the proposal has not been welcomed among sex worker associations and charities.
“Recreating places where human beings are locked up, just to satisfy the sexual needs of men that are considered irrepressible, no, that's unimaginable,” said Delphine Jarraud, at sex worker help association Amicale du Nid, to Le Monde.
Even among those who believe that brothels run by sex workers themselves could be a good idea, the RN’s proposal has strident opposition, due to the far-right party’s stance on foreigners.
“There is no question of finding ourselves allied with the RN and those who want to drive out foreigners,” said Mylène Juste, a sex worker in Paris for 23 years, and campaigner with Strass.
Other laws
Mr Tanguy appears to have pre-empted a lack of support, however. He said: “No-one in the Assembly will support me, except Marine.”
Yet, he is not alone in recently proposing laws on sex work.
For example, Républicain MP Philippe Juvin drafted a bill in October 2024 “aimed at securing the rights of sex workers to ensure safer working conditions”. The bill gathered nine cross-party signatures in support, but was later thrown out by the Assembly.
“It’s a subject I intend to revisit as soon as the budget is passed,” said Mr Juvin, who does not believe that getting rid of brothels and sex work completely is a realistic prospect, and instead drives illegal work further underground.
He has said that sex work could be revived legally “in the name of freedom of enterprise”. The current legal situation in France is contradictory, he has said, because it considers sex workers as “victims to be protected”, but also “prevents them from working normally”.
Some countries – including some Swiss cantons, and New Zealand – have implemented laws that seek to legalise and empower sex workers. Belgium allows sex workers to have legal employment contracts, but pimping and forced prostitution are still prohibited.
