They are volunteers, especially women, long in the dark, who find themselves in the light. In the left-wing parties that have adopted them, the cells for the fight against sexist and sexual violence find themselves at the heart of the controversy: accused of bypassing justice, of fueling the “media court” and arbitrariness.
Julien Bayou, questioned by a former companion, criticizes that of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV); Jean-Luc Mélenchon, since the Taha Bouhafs affair, does not hide his concern about a body he does not control, accusations of which he knows nothing. Many party leaders question these bodies that they themselves endorsed. Until then, they had been much less interested in it than the feminists of their own movements. Carried by them, the cells made it possible, after the #metoo movement, to welcome speech. Now that the hour of sanctions has come, especially for leading officials, everything is complicated.
Liberation of the “ears”
Hélène Bidard, elected communist in Paris, led the French Communist Party (PCF) “Stop violence” program for two years. She remembers a time not so long ago. After the Baupin affair, which broke out in 2016, when comrades still spoke to him of “heavy flirting”. When the liberation of the “ears” had not yet taken place. In the National Council, she spoke: “These cases of sexist and sexual violence happen in all parties, all walks of life, and inevitably also at home. » She had been booed. Today, the answer has changed. A Parisian elected official confirmed to him that, on questions of equality, « ocan no longer [lui] say no to your face”. All the hypocrisy of the political milieu in the face of feminist demands summed up in one sentence.
For a long time, it was easy to confine violence to the private sphere. As former minister Aurélie Filippetti recalled on France 5 on September 22, for left-wing leaders, “It didn’t matter, they considered it private. (…) It’s not big politics.”. This lack of interest has left its mark. Even today, politicians seem uneasy. “Divorces are not always very simple”, released Olivier Faure, questioned on Franceinfo in the wake of the Bayou affair; the deputy La France insoumise (LFI) Manuel Bompard, for his part, caused an outcry after this sentence: “A slap is never okay, but a slap doesn’t equal a man beating his wife every day. »
You have 59.28% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.