“In a government that claims to have made the fight against violence against women the main cause of its five-year term, we must be clear”. Two hours before the first Council of Ministers of the new government, Olivier Faure estimated that clarity ordered Damien Abad to resign. The former president of the LR group in the National Assembly, appointed Minister of Solidarity and Disability on Friday, is accused of rape by two women. The alleged facts date back to 2010 and 2011, according to testimonies that Mediapart published on Saturday, and a complaint had been closed without any follow-up being given in 2017.
There are “striking, concordant testimonies, which tell a way to proceed”, stated the first secretary of the PS on France Inter. “If I were Prime Minister, I would tell Damien Abad II have no reason to think that these women are lying, their word must be respected, waiting for justice, I prefer that you are not in the government “. And to quote again the Hulot affair “where for months and months, the government protected one of its own”.
A few minutes earlier, the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau had defended the same position. “Élisabeth Borne should tell him that he has no place” in the government, rebuked the candidate of the New Popular Ecologist and Social Union (Nupes) in the legislative elections in Paris.
“Society of denunciation and arbitrariness”
“We must send a strong message to women, that their word counts”, she insisted on RTL, recalling that “rape is a crime”. “There is something symbolic in politics, as long as we are not sure that he is innocent, he cannot represent the people” as a minister, pleaded the feminist, advocating that a “precautionary principle” is applied.
To the principle of precaution, Reconquest! opposes the presumption of innocence. “There are people who accuse, that does not mean that they are right,” argued the ex-extreme right presidential candidate, Éric Zemmour, on CNews. “I am very embarrassed by this society of denunciation and arbitrariness, and there is a sacred principle in France, the presumption of innocence and the secrecy of the instruction. …) As long as we are not convicted, we are innocent, ”said his lieutenant Guillaume Peltier, former LR, a few minutes earlier on France 2.
The vice-president of the Reconquest party gave the example of Éric Woerth, implicated in a case of illegal taking of interests in the business of the racecourse of Compiègne. “For four years his reputation was dragged in the mud, everyone demanded his resignation, four years later, justice said he is innocent “. And to conclude: “No one other than justice is a judge”.
“Not aware” of these cases before their revelation by Mediapart, Elisabeth Borne promised to draw “all the consequences” in the event of “new elements” and referral to justice, during a trip to Calvados Sunday when she is seeking a first term as a deputy.