DAMIEN ABAD. The Minister of Solidarity ends the first round of the 2022 legislative elections in a favorable ballot in the 5th constituency of Ain. A result obtained in the context of accusations of sexual assault…
Candidate in Ain for the 2022 legislative elections, Damien Abad, appointed Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Disabled People last May, plays his place in the government, like the other ministers who are candidates for these elections. Because the Elysée has affirmed it: the members of the government who have decided to submit to the vote will only be able to remain ministers if they are elected in their constituencies.
For Damien Abed, it is a doubly crucial result which should fall on June 19, at the end of the second round of these legislative elections, the minister having been accused, the day after his appointment to the government, of sexual assault by two women and now being pointed by a third since Tuesday, June 14. “These polls will be the justices of the peace and will demonstrate my ability to retain the confidence of the French,” said the person concerned before the first round, categorically refuting all the charges against him.
Damien Abad spent 10 years sitting in the National Assembly in the opposition, working as president of the group Les Républicains (LR). He is now operating a clear shift by running for his third term under the colors of the majority Together! in his 5th constituency of Ain.
Three testimonials without follow-up for the moment
Following the appointment of Damien Abad as Minister of Solidarity on May 21, Mediapart had made himself the messenger of two women – Chloé and Margaux, assumed names – who accused the deputy of having sexually assaulted them in 2010 and 2011. This Tuesday, June 14, in the middle of the between-two-rounds of the legislative elections, a third accuser, Laëtitia, claims to have been the victim of an attempted rape at the home of Damien Abad in 2010.
Following the publication of the article by Mediapart, Elisabeth Borne had assured not to be aware of the accusations and had promised that “if there are new elements, if justice is again seized”, the government would draw “all the consequences”. Later, the Elysée Palace admitted having been informed of the charges against Damien Abad. However, the minister has not been worried in his function at this stage and has several times assured that he has not committed the acts of which he is accused. He even explained that he was physically unable to do so due to his disability caused by arthrogryposis.
On May 25, the Paris public prosecutor’s office, after a report, announced that it would not open an investigation into the Abad case “for lack of information allowing the victim of the facts denounced to be identified and, therefore, for lack of the possibility of proceeding to his detailed hearing”.
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What result for Damien Abad in the legislative elections?
Damien Abad led a discreet campaign in Ain to hope to be reappointed to his seat as a deputy in the National Assembly. Limiting his presence in the national media, the candidate of the presidential majority has bet on his local presence, a strategy which seems to have paid off this Sunday, June 12 for the first round of the legislative elections. The Minister came first in the 5th constituency of Ain with 33.38% of the vote in the first round, ahead of Nupes candidate Florence Pisani (23.54%) and RN candidate Joelle Nambotin (19.72%).
Opinion polls gave the favorite minister candidate before the start of the election. A study ofIfop-Fiducial for LCI published on June 8 credited Damien Abad with 39% of the voting intentions with a comfortable lead over his opponents from Nupes (22%) and the National Rally (14%). According to the predictions, the rallying of the deputy to the presidential majority and the recent accusations brought against him would not have deterred the voters.
In the event of the second round also, the Ifop-Fiducial poll of Wednesday June 8 gave the advantage to the minister, whether he finds himself facing the candidate of Nupes, Florence Pasini, or that of the RN, Joëlle Nambotin. It should be borne in mind that the polls are only a snapshot of the trends at a given time and that the result of the election may be different from the forecasts announced.
Damien Abad, from LR deputy to Minister of Solidarity
Damien Abad was appointed Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities by Emmanuel Macron on May 20, 2022. This appointment is the result of a process of several weeks, discussions between the deputy and Thierry Solère, political adviser to the head of state, known for recruiting new supporters on the right, having started only a few days after the re-election of the head of state according to Le Figaro. Low masses that have no more to the Republicans. This is sUnder pressure from many of them that Damien Abad finally announced that he was leaving the presidency of the LR group in the National Assembly and that he was going “on leave” from his party on May 19, less than 24 hours of his appointment to the government.
Damien Abad explained it again in the columns of Figaro : “I decide today to leave my function as president of the LR group in the Assembly for the sake of clarity, consistency and responsibility”, he assured. “I remain a right-wing man, but I no longer recognize myself in LR’s approach”, explained Damien Abad in particular, affirming that “faced with the populist danger, [il] don’t believe[yait] not to old divisions, but to the gathering of all those who wish to advance our country”.
What is Damien Abad’s disability?
Damien Abad suffers from a rare congenital disease called “arthrogryposis”. This disease, known as “fetal immobility syndrome”, causes neurological abnormalities even before birth and manifests itself in a series of muscular problems in the four limbs. The consequences can also be skeletal or visceral. If birth mortality is high, a patient’s lifespan can then be normal, but often with severe handicaps.
Damien Abad is the first elected representative of the Fifth Republic to bear such a visible disability and is, in this sense, one of the rare personalities to embody the inclusion of people with physical disabilities in the political world in France. The minister rarely speaks on this subject. We have to go back to an interview from January 2020 at the Parisian to see Damien Abad talk about his illness: “I have always made sure that it is neither a brake nor a driving force in politics”, he said then. “The very first time you come to a market, to distribute leaflets, that’s when it’s the most difficult.”
In May, Damien Abad returned to his disability to defend himself against rape charges against him. “In my position, the sexual act can only occur with the assistance and benevolence of my partner. […] In addition, I am unable to carry a person, transport them and undress them,” he explained.
Damien Abad was therefore until now LR deputy for Ain and president of the Les Républicains group in the National Assembly. Born April 5, 1980 in Nîmes, he comes from a family that fled Franco’s Spain during the 1930s and 1940s. The name Abad is also of Languedoc and Catalan origin. Damien Abad follows a brilliant schooling, despite his disability linked to a neurological disease, arthrogryposis (read below). He graduated from Sciences Po Bordeaux and graduated from Sciences Po Paris in the 2000s, where he became a lecturer. However, he will not succeed in integrating the ENA, failing twice in the Grand oral of the school of administration.
Young, Damien Abad approaches politics very early, working for centrist groups in the National Assembly on budgetary and tax issues. He will be a candidate in the 2007 legislative elections in the Yvelines, but will obtain less than 5% of the votes in the first round. Founder of the “Young Centrists” in 2008, he became Deputy Secretary General of the New Center two years later. Damien Abad then seeks a territory as a base and is successively elected municipal councilor of Vauvert (Gard), European deputy in the South-East constituency thanks to an alliance UMP-NC in 2009, then regional councilor of Rhône- Alps and finally departmental councilor of Ain, finally finding a department of adoption and a new party: the UMP. During the 2012 legislative elections, he was elected deputy in the newly created 5th constituency of Ain. He was re-elected in 2017 with 35% of the vote in the first round and 67% in the second, against a candidate from the Republic in March.
Damien Abad is known to have been one of the youngest elected members of the European Parliament, the youngest of French MEPs. He will also be one of the six youngest deputies in France to the National Assembly. Supporter of Bruno Le Maire for the primary of the right in 2016 and nevertheless faithful to François Fillon during the 2017 campaign, he will be vice-president of the Republicans for a time after having supported Laurent Wauquiez for the leadership of the party. He had supported Xavier Bertrand ahead of the 2022 presidential election and had since appeared in favor of a rapprochement with LREM.