The political future of Adrien Quatennens darkens considerably: France Insoumise must decide on his return to the Assembly, while personalities from the NUPES demand that he put an end to his mandate.
Can an elected representative of the Republic, a fortiori a deputy whose mandate is to represent national sovereignty, remain in office if he is convicted of “domestic violence”? Legally, nothing prevents Adrien Quatennens from keeping his post as deputy for the North, but the contingencies of this problem are of another nature: the question is highly political, especially since the party to which he belongs has fought against violence against women a battle horse.
The parliamentary group of France Insoumise published a statement on Tuesday afternoon to indicate that his functions were suspended for a period of 4 months, corresponding to the duration of his suspended prison sentence. From April 14, 2023, a door is open to the deputy if he wants to return to the Assembly in the parliamentary group, but this must be “conditioned on the commitment to follow an accountability course on violence made to women with feminist associations”.
Since his conviction, the deputy must however deal with very clear reactions from several political figures of the NUPES: the deputy of Paris Sandrine Rousseau wrote a short message on Twitter this Tuesday: “He must resign. Out of respect for women, for our struggles and the values we stand for,” she wrote. Senator EELV Mélanie Vogel also demanded that he leave office “if he does not want to send a catastrophic message to all women victims of violence and to all people who engage in movements that call themselves feminists” . “ It is a serious judicial decision, a substantial, serious sentence, (…) Is he in a position to defend the common cause which is ours, including the cause of feminists? Delaporte, elected from the Socialists and Allies group in the Assembly, had categorical words: “If he had been a socialist, I can tell you that he would have been excluded”.
A court conviction accepted by Adrien Quatennens
Deputy La France Insoumise Adrien Quatennens was given a 4-month suspended prison sentence for violence. The elected official was tried on Tuesday, December 13, in appearance on prior admission of guilt: the prosecution summoned him this morning, to ask him if he still recognized the facts and to offer him a sentence: suspended prison sentence therefore .
Adrien Quatennens had already made it known that he admitted to having slapped his wife and that he had multiplied the messages by telephone, in an approach which is similar in his description to acts of harassment. The respondent has accepted the sanction proposed by the Public Prosecutor of Lille, for “violence on a spouse, having not resulted in any ITT” as well as for “regular and malicious sending of messages” by SMS and WhatsApp, between August and September 2022.
The deputy from the North was also ordered to pay 2,000 euros in damages to his wife, Céline Quatennens, who had filed a complaint against him.
“This sentence does not prevent him from returning to the Assembly”
According to the continuous news channel BFMTV, Adrien Quatennens “appeared tired and thin, swimming in his coat” at the hearing. The sentence was approved this morning by a judge. AFP, which relies on the entourage of the respondent, indicated this Tuesday morning that the sentence most likely proposed by the prosecution would be “a fine” or “an awareness course” on domestic violence. The maximum penalties provided for sexual violence are much more severe: the deputy could face up to two years in prison, depending on how the facts are qualified by the courts. The public prosecutor, to set a sentence, heard several witnesses, relatives of the couple currently in the process of divorce.
Me Jade Dousselin, his lawyer, told AFP insisted that the deputy was sentenced for facts dating back “more than a year” in a context of “mutual aggression”. The lawyer also specifies that the SMS sent and which were also the subject of his conviction have for the homologating judge “no character or harassing, malicious or threatening”. “It is a solemn warning for a man who we know will not return to justice,” she said, adding: “This sentence does not prevent him from being able to rejoin the National Assembly”.
Céline Quatennens had denounced “physical and psychological violence” exerted for “several years” in a press release sent to AFP several weeks ago. If Adrien Quatennens had refused the proposed sentence, then he would have been sent back to the Lille Criminal Court in March 2023, for a public hearing, which would have exposed him much more to the media.