THE GENDER. A report for “moral and sexual harassment”, Gilles Le Gendre is at the heart of a new case, he who is a candidate (LREM) for his succession in Paris. A file opened by… Rachida Dati. What there is to know.
[Mise à jour le 1er juin à 19h44] After the Damien Abad affair, a Gilles Le Gendre affair? Less than two weeks before the first round of the legislative elections, on June 12, the macronie is hit by a new case. Indeed, after the new Minister of Solidarity, it is the turn of a heavyweight of LREM to be targeted by accusations. Indeed, Gilles Le Gendre, deputy of the 2nd district of Pairs, is targeted by a case of “moral and sexual harassment”. Whoever is a candidate for re-election in the capital may well be at the start of legal proceedings.
The person behind this report to the public prosecutor is none other than Rachida Dati. The mayor of 7e arrondissement of Paris would have collected several elements incriminating the former president of the LREM group in the National Assembly. In addition, the former Minister of Justice criticizes Gilles Le Gendre for not having reported to justice facts of which he would have been made aware. She asks for an investigation to be opened. What elements is Rachida Dati based on? Why is it the origin of this procedure? What does the respondent respond to? Explanations.
Why is Gilles Le Gendre implicated by Rachida Dati?
Monday May 30, 2022, Rachida Dati sent a letter to the Paris prosecutor’s office, as revealed The Parisian. In his writings, revealed by The Parisian and The world, Rachida Dati indicates that the predecessor of Christophe Castaner at the Bourbon Palace has been “publicly implicated on several occasions, since 2020, in cases of moral and sexual harassment.” According to the declarations of the former Minister of Justice, he would have had “inappropriate behavior” against a parliamentary collaborator, of which the latter would have informed Richard Ferrand, the President of the National Assembly, according to Mediapart. In addition, Rachida Dati adds, in her remarks, suspicions of “sexual abuse” on the part of Gilles Le Gendre, published by the former LREM deputy Joachim Son-Forget, in a message posted on social media, at the end of May. He evokes “a leader of the LREM deputies who was himself suspected of sexual abuse.”
Also in the file, a press release from seven trade union organizations of parliamentary collaborators, published on February 27, 2020, in which it is indicated that Gilles Le Gendre, then boss of the LREM deputies, had been informed of accusations of moral and sexual harassment ” acting of at least one MEP” from his group. However, a few hours earlier, Gilles Le Gendre had affirmed, a few hours earlier on France Inter, “not to be aware of specific cases of moral and sexual harassment in the National Assembly.” That same day, an article by Mediapart indicated that “Gilles Le Gendre cannot ignore it, at least two LREM deputies are accused of sexual harassment by ex-collaborators.” Rachida Dati thus adds in her report: “this state of affairs raises questions about the non-denunciation of an offense on the part of the group of which Gilles Le Gendre was the president and of which he was aware – even of crimes if the limits of harassment had been crossed .”
Why is it Rachida Dati who is dragging Gilles Le Gendre to justice?
After having accumulated these various press articles, Rachida Dati therefore decided to make a report to the public prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau, under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure. The latter provides that “any constituted authority, any public officer or civil servant who, in the exercise of his functions, acquires knowledge of a crime or misdemeanor is required to give notice without delay to the public prosecutor. and to transmit to this magistrate all the information, reports and acts relating thereto.” It was therefore in his capacity as mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris that the former Keeper of the Seals acted, invoking “the opening of an investigation with regard to the facts, particularly with regard to the quality of the facts, the quality of their presumed authors and of the institutional framework where they would have occurred.
Beyond the accusations against Gilles Le Gendre, Rachida Dati’s approach is also to strike a political blow at an opponent. The respondent being the deputy for part of the 7th arrondissement of which the former minister is mayor, this is an opportunity to put the candidate for his re-election in difficulty in a territory still on the right (Jean Tibéri from 1988 to 2012, then François Fillon), before LREM took over in 2017, to the detriment of Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet. For the polls of June 12 and 19, Rachida Dati is a fervent supporter of the opponent LR to Gilles Le Genre, Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mayor of the 6th arrondissement.
Why is Gilles Le Gendre accused of “sexual abuse” by Joachim Son-Forget?
Troublemaker of LREM, Joachim Son-Forget, deputy for French people living abroad, intervened in the report made by Rachida Dati. The reason ? A post on Facebook dated May 28, 2022, in which he indicates that “Gilles Legendre is the very reason for my departure from LREM. I had explicitly informed the President of the Republic in January 2019.” He then mentions a “head of the LREM deputies (Gilles Le Gendre in this case at that time, editor’s note) who was himself suspected of sexual abuse which was reported to me directly by the alleged victims, collaborator and group and party activists: “I know all the details. The candidate for his succession assures “knows[tre] all the details. I have names and witnesses,” he said. “The truth must finally come out. It was stifled by giving posts to those who should be silent and by changing the leader of the deputies on the march.”
What does the May 2022 Mediapart article reveal about Gilles Le Gendre?
This is the most recent press article implicating Gilles Le Gendre. On May 25, 2022, Mediapart reveals that the MP for Paris has been the subject of accusations by a parliamentary collaborator for “inappropriate and inappropriate behavior”, which would be “likely to receive, subject to the assessment of the prosecution and the courts, a criminal qualification “according to the statements of the alleged victim to Richard Ferrand President of the National Assembly, whom she met on September 6, 2018. She does not wish to go further. For his part, Gilles Le Gendre would have defended himself by evoking a “slander.” Another scene of inappropriate behavior by the chosen one would have occurred, according to Mathilde Viot, author of the book The politician, I make compostwithout providing further details.
Did Gilles Le Gendre hide cases of sexual harassment?
In a press release dated February 27, 2020, mentioned by Rachida Dati, seven trade union organizations (CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT, CFDT, SNCP, Solidaires and UNSA) indicated that in September 2019, a request for a meeting had been formulated with Gilles Le Gendre, president of the LREM group in the Assembly, to discuss a case of sexual harassment against an employee, attributed to an LREM deputy. “Mr. Le Gendre never deigned to receive us in person. He commissioned a vice-president of the group to do so”, explained the unions at the time, adding that they had an appointment with the said vice-president during the course of the month of September 2019. However, despite this, Gilles Le Gendre had affirmed on January 10, 2020 in “Daily”, then on February 27 of the same year, on France Inter, not having “knowledge of specific suspicious cases” of moral and sexual harassment in the Assembly. “False allegations” according to the unions.
Because on the same day as Gilles Le Gendre’s interview on France Inter and the union press release – February 27, 2020 -, Mediapart evoked “the lie” of the one who was then president of the LREM deputies in the National Assembly. According to the investigative media, on which Rachida Dati relies in her report, “Gilles Le Gendre cannot ignore it, at least two LREM deputies are accused of sexual harassment by former collaborators, cases documented by Mediapart. Cases that cannot be foreign to him as group president.”
What had finally ended up admitting the elected representative of the 2nd district of Paris, with Mediapart, claiming to be “obviously aware” of these two files and that they were the subject of legal proceedings. The two deputies targeted? Stéphane Trompille (4th district of Ain) and Pierre Cabaré (1st district of Haute-Garonne). The first was found guilty, at first instance, of sexual harassment, a decision he appealed. The case of the second is still being examined by the courts. Neither was reinvested by LREM for the 2022 legislative elections.
What does Gilles Le Gendre answer?
Faced with these various documents put in the file of the report by Rachida Dati, Gilles Le Gendre was quick to react. First, the deputy refutes the allegations, indicating that “no complaint has been filed.” On the other hand, he added that “as soon as this questioning becomes public and takes an obvious political turn, I asked my lawyer to initiate proceedings for slanderous denunciation against those who took part in it.” Given the political context, Gilles Le Gendre believes that with the approach of the legislative elections, and in view of the support of Rachida Dati for her opponent Jean-Pierre Lecoq, “it is easy to imagine the motivations of this witness of self-proclaimed morality.