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On March 5, Nathalie Élimas, Secretary of State in charge of Priority Education, left the government, following suspicions of harassment of some of her collaborators. This Friday, the Paris prosecutor’s office announces the opening of an investigation for “moral harassment” targeting the former minister from the ranks of the MoDem.
A preliminary investigation was opened on Thursday after accusations of collaborators and a report from the administration to the court, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. Nathalie Élimas was the subject of an administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate of Higher Education and Research (IGESR), which led to a report to justice received on March 10 by the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The investigation was entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person (BRDP). Before opening a preliminary investigation, the magistrates of the Paris prosecutor’s office first had to determine whether the facts alleged against the former secretary of state were detached from his function or not. In the second hypothesis, the file would then have been sent to the Court of Justice of the Republic, the only jurisdiction empowered to prosecute and judge the ministers for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions.
“Concordant”, “serious” and “overwhelming” testimonies
In July 2020, the former deputy mayor of Margency (Val-d’Oise) was appointed Secretary of State for Priority Education. But, in January, the existence of an administrative inquiry into the functioning of his cabinet was revealed. Some of his collaborators would accuse him of acts of “harassment” or even “abuse”, leading to his departure from the government a few months later.
The one who was still a minister was then said to be “victim of an attack of great violence”. But, in mid-February, an internal pre-report had been submitted to Jean Castex, in which the testimonies targeting Nathalie Élimas were “concordant”, “serious” and “overwhelming”.
Shortly after leaving the government, the former minister announced that he had filed a complaint for “slanderous denunciation”. “Given the importance of this case, I decided to defend myself and take a first step, by filing a complaint for slanderous denunciation,” she told our colleagues at AFP.