Sandrine Rousseau expresses her anger and the feeling of betrayal for her fight against sexual violence against women after the accusations of sexual assault targeting one of her former supporters.
Sandrine Rousseau splashed by accusations of sexual assault targeting former support, Gérard Miller. The environmentalist MP confided to She having been betrayed “absolutely, totally, fundamentally” by the psychoanalyst targeted by more than forty accusatory testimonies. The man involved with La France insoumise (LFI) had publicly supported the Parisian elected official during the environmentalist primaries for the presidential election in 2021. Three years later, this support is a burden for the MP and feminist activist. “What will women think of having seen Gérard Miller appear with me? I apologize to them, even if I knew nothing,” she declared.
Sandrine Rousseau’s reaction comes two weeks after the first accusations against Gérard Miller and revealed by a magazine investigation She. A delay that the MP considers necessary “to be able to absorb the shock and put forward the words that allow us to move forward”. Before that, the environmentalist had only expressed her anger in a message on [elle]”, but this time it is the credibility of his fight against violence against women, whether physical, psychological or sexual, that this is damaging.
In France, going to watch a TV show, when you are a young woman, is therefore dangerous.
I am so angry. #PPDA #Miller— Sandrine Rousseau (@sandrousseau) February 8, 2024
“If even allies turn out to be aggressors, who can we rely on?”
Out of the question for the feminist elected official to let it go, but she is one of the rare Nupes politicians to have spoken out on this matter. She expresses “astonishment” on the part of Nupes elected officials. “It’s more difficult when it happens within your political family,” she acknowledges while deeming this “silence a little shameful too.” And added: “We are not proud to have this at home.”
This affair raises the question of allies, particularly male allies in the feminist fight in the eyes of Sandrine Rousseau who says she feels “very alone” in leading the battle. “On this issue of violence against women and sexism”, there are “not many people to count on” according to her: “It’s like a kind of rubbish. There are less and less people to lean on. It’s like an island washed away by the waters.” And the list of allies is reduced after the accusations against Gérard Miller who had nevertheless relayed and defended the positions of the elected feminist. “If even allies turn out to be potential aggressors or rapists, who can we rely on?” questions Sandrine Rousseau who ends up concluding that “this is a fight in which we cannot count on any man”.