A racism row surrounding the Miss France beauty contest has ended with a Franco-Benise student winning the competition and today insisting that the country was happily ‘mixed’.
Flora Coquerel, a 19-year-old whose mother is from the West African state of Benin, was crowned on live television on Saturday night.
It follows accusations that all the contestants were ‘as white and snow’ and chief judge, movie star Alain Delon, joining the anti-immigration National Front.
Delon quit as the lifetime president of the beauty pageant in October when people said the contest was increasingly reflecting the inherent racism in French society.
But Ms Coquerel said: ‘I am very proud to represent a cosmopolitan France. It shows that today’s France is a mixed France, where there is every culture, and I think a lot of people will see themselves in me.’
Ms Coquerel was voted Miss France 2014 by a combination of votes from the TV audience and a celebrity jury.
Flora Coquerel has been Ear Hustle 411 Approved.