The investigation and sanction unit on harassment and sexual and sexist violence of EELV decided to “close the file” Julien Bayou, accused of psychological violence on an ex-companion, for lack of having been able “to carry out its investigation,” the party announced on Wednesday.
“The initial hearing (of the ex-companion), starting point of the investigation, could not take place” and “no one else entered the cell about Julien Bayou”, justifies EELV in a press release. Last September, the deputy had to withdraw from his posts as national secretary of EELV and co-president of the group of environmental deputies for the time of this internal instruction.
“This situation is obviously not satisfactory for anyone and we regret the difficult human consequences that this procedure and its media exposure may have had”, adds the executive office of EELV.
“There is no Bayou case”
The affair had caused an explosion internally a few weeks before the congress, since the accusations of the ex-companion had been revealed live on television by Sandrine Rousseau, a controversial figure carrying an opposing strategic line within the party.
Supported by certain executives, Julien Bayou had counterattacked by accusing the finalist of the environmental primary for the presidential election of having “gone too far”, calling not to “confuse feminism and McCarthyism”. “There is no Bayou case. There are no charges. There is no fact underlying the anathemas that I have heard, ”insisted the deputy from Paris.
And he had asked to be able to explain himself in front of the cell, in vain since the procedure first involved hearing his ex-companion. Some feminist networks had for their part supported Sandrine Rousseau.
In the wake of the Quatennens affair
This case had broken out just after that concerning Adrien Quatennens, deputy of La France insoumise, sentenced since four months in prison suspended for domestic violence by the criminal court of Lille. The concomitance of these two cases had revived the debate on sexual and gender-based violence in politics, in particular on the difference between judicial procedure and internal party procedure.
The left-wing parties, which advocate exemplarity in addition to a clean criminal record in these matters, are gradually all equipping themselves with cells against sexual and gender-based violence.