While for several days, even several years, the deputy LFI Éric Coquerel has been the subject of “rumors”, according to his party, a woman came out of silence this weekend. This relative of Jean-Luc Mélenchon has so far not been the subject of any complaint. But this Sunday, Sophie Tissier, former figure of the Yellow Vests, announced that she had made a report to the LFI sexual violence monitoring committee regarding the behavior towards her of the one who has just been elected chairman of the Finance Committee.
On Twitter, she explained that she had suffered “gestures from the deputy, evoking sticky wandering hands and inappropriate assaults in 2014” during an evening. “It is not a simple rumor since I testify”, developed Sophie Tissier with the Parisian this Sunday.
On BFMTV, Éric Coquerel once again denied and began a counter-offensive: “I will look at the file, I will see. I do not rule out filing a complaint for defamation. “I think there will be no complaint (…), I think it will be pschitt”, he continued, assuring that he had testimonies exculpating him and stressing that “even a cause just like #MeToo can be instrumentalised”.
With the Parisian, Sophie Tissier said she was “disgusted” by her defense. “It has nothing to do with revenge”, insists the one who had testified anonymously to the magazine Causette in 2018. At the end of the day on BFMTV, the Insoumise MP Danièle Obono confirmed that the party’s monitoring committee had been seized . “He will see what the characteristics of this report are,” she explained.
“An indignation with variable geometry” according to the RN
Within the political class, the leader of the LREM deputies, Aurore Bergé, estimated on RTL that it was “in no case internally of the political parties that such important matters should be settled. It is justice that must be seized if there are complaints”. The new President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, for her part considered it “sad” that Éric Coquerel “needed” to defend himself publicly. “We must absolutely keep reason, all, collectively. The machine must not get carried away by rumours. I invite each victim to file a complaint, ”she urged on France 3.
Same tone on the RN side. “There is justice in France. If a person has been the victim of inappropriate acts, they must file a complaint, ”recalled MEP Thierry Mariani on BFM, however mocking a LFI ” caught at its own game. ” “ I think there is indignation at variable geometry from the left “on the issue of sexual violence, supported the president of RN Jordan Bardella at the microphone of Europe 1.
A reference to the calls for the resignation launched by the Nupes of Minister Damien Abad, targeted by a judicial inquiry after a complaint of attempted rape. A parallel rejected by Éric Coquerel for whom “citizen Abad is entitled to the presumption of innocence”, but his quality of minister would make it “preferable” that he leave office.