The Paris Criminal Court judges former LREM MP Laetitia Avia from May 9: the prosecution noted in its investigation “humiliating remarks” on which justice must rule.
It’s trial time for Laetitia Avia. One of the vice-presidents of the executive office of Renaissance is on trial between this Tuesday May 9 and this Wednesday May 10, 2023 at the Paris Criminal Court after an investigation carried out for “moral harassment”. She is summoned to appear by the prosecution. The prosecution’s investigation mentions “mockery, denigration, humiliating remarks intended to destabilize” these employees, “erratic management” of his work team mixed with the creation of a “climate of fear and ill-being”.
The timing was rather funny. On May 12, 2020, six parliamentary assistants to Laetitia Avia accused her in Mediapart of moral harassment with the use of racist, sexist and homophobic remarks. The next day, MP LREM presented her bill to combat hate on the Internet to the National Assembly. On July 9, an investigation for “moral harassment” was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The fall of a rising star of La République en Marche
A blow in the express political ascent of this lawyer. Early support for Emmanuel Macron, the eighth constituency of Paris elected her as a deputy. She had even become one of the spokespersons for La République en Marche.
Now, she faces two years in prison, a fine of 30,000 euros and an additional penalty of ineligibility. These six former collaborators had shared Mediapart their vision of the management of the MP: a woman described as racist, sexist and homophobic.
The remarks reproached to Laetitia Avia
“We voted for the PD amendment”; “you’re a fake Chinese, you don’t master the Mac”; “She is my girlfriend [mais] she communicates very badly about what she does. This is what happens when you put a gay on the com “Here are the type of sentences that this 37-year-old woman would have sent on private conversations.
Laetitia Avia is also accused of having entrusted tasks relating to her private life to her former collaborators: such as “making an appointment with a notary, reserving a place for her husband at Roland-Garros, buying medical products subject to intimate prescriptions at the pharmacy or even, during the summer, to refresh the legs with the help of an atomizer”, according to Le Figaro.
Laetitia Avia, caught red-handed trying to rewrite her Wikipedia page
The ex-MP was also unmasked for wanting to rewrite her Wikipedia page several times. “Wikipedia, there are several things to do. We must take control of this page. It is not enough just to delete the paragraph on Le Canard enchaîné, we must rewrite it anyway and source it when we rewrite it.” Here is what she says to a collaborator in order to improve, according to her, her e-reputation.
The Duck chained article in question is the one published on July 5, 2017: he accuses Laetitia Avia of having bitten a taxi driver. In the following months, several accounts tried to water down his Wikipedia page by partially or totally removing the mention of this case. However, the IP addresses of these accounts indicated that it came from the computers of the National Assembly.
On her Twitter account, now deleted, she said in October 2018: “In the political world too, we must fight everyday sexism, inappropriate remarks or paternalism.” One of his former collaborators, however, describes a very distant internal communication: “She often insults the deputies that she does not like “whore”. She also makes fun of their physical appearance”.
The former deputy kept her defense for the court after the revelations of Mediapart
Laetitia Avia defended herself on Twitter about her methods with Mediapart: “I am a demanding MP towards my collaborators, because they are well paid but I am very flexible on the schedules. I am very little present in the office, so yes we exchange a lot via Telegram”. She has always refuted any harassment and reserved her explanations for the court.
The day after her tweet, Médiapart reacted directly by revealing this time voice extracts once again questioning the MP. The media indicates that the ethics officer of the National Assembly has been seized at least six times for actions relating to this deputy. The presidency of the Assembly and that of the LREM group have also been informed, as has the anti-harassment unit of the Palais Bourbon, launched in February 2020, but no investigation or sanction has been considered internally.