A Holocaust survivor, feminist icon and campaigner against anti-Semitism, Simone Veil (1927-2017) was a French politician of Jewish descent. She spent her life fighting for women’s rights. In 1974, as Minister of Health, she managed to push through the ‘Veil Law’, legalising abortion. Her concentration camp experience turned her into a passionate advocate of European unification. She was the first woman elected the President of the European Parliament in 1979.

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