After Emmanuel Macron in the Tarn, last week, the turn of the Prime Minister to be questioned about the presence, within the government, of ministers whom women accuse of rape. In the viewfinder, Damien Abad, accused by a third woman of having tried to rape her in 2010, according to new testimony collected by Mediapart. What the person concerned vigorously denies.
“That a man uses his stature as a man of power to obtain favors, does that bother you?” “Launched this Wednesday noon a woman to Elisabeth Borne, during a trip to Calvados where she is campaigning for the legislative elections. “Of course it bothers me,” calmly replied the Prime Minister. “Then why is he still here?” Why is nobody saying anything? “, insists his interlocutor.
“Wait ma’am, I’m not a judge, you know,” opposed Elisabeth Borne. “It is essential that on these subjects the voice of women (…) be heard”, she declared to the press on the market of Villers-Bocage, in the 6th district of Calvados. “As Prime Minister, I also say it as a woman, we must allow justice to establish the facts. Do not hesitate to file a complaint. (…) I am not a judge and investigations are not carried out with anonymous testimonies. Everything is done to (…) welcome women as well as possible so that they can file a complaint and that justice can establish the facts”, she added.
“Laëtitia” (an assumed first name), a “centrist elected official”, accuses Mr. Abad of having tried to rape her during a party organized at his home in Paris in the first half of 2010. Without explicitly mentioning a complaint , his lawyer, Me Raphaële Bialkiewicz, told Mediapart that she was proceeding “to the collection and cross-checking of elements, in order to provide all the necessary follow-up”.
These accusations come after those published by the online media on May 20, the day after Mr. Abad’s appointment as Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Disabled People: two women, quoted by Mediapart, accused the new minister of raping them in 2010 and 2011.