Was the pressure from his fellow environmentalists too strong? Green MP Julien Bayou resigns from the parliamentary group but also from the Ecologists party. The elected official from Paris, already in retreat since his ex-partner who accused him of psychological violence filed a complaint at the beginning of March, sent an internal letter to the party leadership, this Tuesday, April 2 in the early morning, to inform of her decision. The leader of the Green elected representatives in the Assembly, Cyrielle Châtelain, announced it immediately in the group’s messaging loop.
The Executive Office of Ecologists, meeting urgently this weekend, decided to outsource the investigation to a law firm specializing in gender-based and sexual violence. In front of her peers, the boss of environmentalists Marine Tondelier justified herself by indicating the existence of “several new testimonies on inappropriate behavior” since the suspension of Bayou. He, in his letter, considered that he found the holding of such an investigation abnormal. Resignation email whose “timing” and “tone” astonish Tondelier and his entourage.
At the end of last week, environmentalist deputies looked into his case to find out whether, yes or not, the former national secretary of EELV should be suspended from the group. During the vote, the qualified majority established at 60%, provided for by the internal regulations, was not reached. The result of the vote created internal turmoil: nearly 80 elected officials and local activists subsequently threatened an indefinite militant strike.
Beyond Julien Bayou, it is yet another incident within the Green Party which is polluting the campaign of candidate Marie Toussaint, credited with 7% of voting intentions in the polls. Competed on the left by Raphaël Glucksmann’s list (11%), the MEP could also face a shortage of small hands to carry out the rest of the campaign.