Published on
11/12/2025 – 12:00 GMT+1

“French politics, money and sex“ was the answer of the Europe Today team to your reporter when he asked what today’s explainer is about.

Easy to mock and laugh at, as you cannot imagine a more powerful trio. But perhaps the topic needs a more mature take?

Brothels have been banned in France since 1946. But French far-right lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy wants to bring them back.

His pitch? They would not be run by souteneurs. The plan would be to create “cooperatives” managed by the women themselves. As Tanguy poetically put it: “sex workers would be empresses in their kingdom.”

It sounds almost progressive — but let us look at the reality of the situation.

According to the French authorities, there are 40,000 people in prostitution in France today.

And here is the dark side: pimping networks exploit 97% of the sex workers. Critics argue you cannot simply turn a trafficking industry into a “cooperative” overnight.

And finally, there is a massive irony. The National Rally party (RN) is considered to be strictly anti-immigrant. Yet, the majority of sex workers in France are foreign nationals.

So the question is: is the far right really planning to build “kingdoms” for the very people they usually want to leave France?