The internal investigation unit of the EELV announces the closure of the Julien Bayou file

A decision that does not pass. On Wednesday 1 February, the executive office of Europe Écologie Les Verts announced the closure of the investigation against its deputy Julien Bayou, who had resigned from his post as national secretary of the EELV and co-president of the group at the Assembly. fall, after being accused by his former partner of psychological violence. The internal cell of the party, dedicated to the accompaniment and protection of victims of sexual and gender-based harassment and violence, felt it could not “complete your survey”due to the impossibility of hearing the appellant: “the conditions for the application of the protocol were not met and the first instance hearing, the starting point of the investigation, could not be held” he said in a statement, deploring (not without irony) a situation “obviously satisfying for no one”.

A party that turns a deaf ear?

The former partner of the deputy had sent a first email in June 2022 to the party’s investigative unit. Despite a brief appearance in Le Figaro last summer, the relationship had gone relatively unnoticed until Sandrine Rousseau brought it up on the set of the show It’s up to you in September and brings the theme back to center stage. In October, the ex-companion of the deputy then confiscated the petition ex officio, causing the opening of an internal investigation into the deputy. The complainant had expressed a wish to be heard “under certain conditions ensuring the safety of the testimonies ». A hearing which, however, never took place, according to the press release released on Wednesday.

If the main interested party continues to deny the facts, his ex-girlfriend confided in a long interview with the media reporterrealong with other victims, also accusing the deputy of psychological violence.

A “staggering decision”

Reactions soon poured in, indicating the inability of such a device to reassure complainants and offer them real protection: “If the victims do not wish to be welcomed by this unit, it is because it is failing and does not guarantee the reassuring framework necessary to welcome their words and adequately support them” the #NousToutes feminist collective declared via twitter, condemning a decision that has effect “of a new violence against the victims: it is shameful to put the blame and responsibility on them for the failure of a process that should protect them”. All of this also creates a climate in which more victims are unlikely to come forward.

Set up in the wake of the #MeTooPolitique movement, the Observatory on sexist and sexual violence in politics, for its part, calls for the establishment of a “nationwide cell where victims could end up”. Independent of any party, this entity would guarantee the neutrality of its members. A request that for the moment remains unanswered by the government.