” He started flirting quite heavily, then made inappropriate and offensive gestures. I remember she took me by the waist, her hand on her hips, she touched my buttocks, etc … “
In her testimony to France Info, Sophie Tissier describes the gestures allegedly made towards her in 2014 by Eric Coquerel, a figure of France Insoumise, and recently elected president of the Finance Commission.
On the occasion of these elections on Thursday 30 June, the journalist and activist Rokhaya Diallo mentioned on the microphone of RTL the cases of several women who allegedly suffered problematic behavior by the parliamentarian.
“I have several sources within LFI, I have heard several times from women about the behavior he would have with women”he said to explain his surprise at putting Eric Coquerel in the running for chairmanship of the commission. He also expressed his deep amazement at the party’s silence, even as Taha Bouhafs quickly withdrew from the legislative elections following allegations of sexual assault leveled against him last May.
If Rokhaya Diallo’s comments are recent, there are other traces of testimony, most notably in a December 2018 article on sexism within La France Insoumise published in To chatwhere Eric Coquerel is not mentioned by name, but where two women testify of very insistent flirtations.
One of them is precisely … Sophie Tissier, this former yellow vest who finally seized La France’s sexual assault follow-up committee over the weekend and filed a sexual harassment complaint on Monday 4th July:
For his part, Eric Coquerel has divided a forum posted in the JDD to proclaim that he has “has never exercised physical or psychological violence or coercion to obtain a complaint, which characterizes the gateway to criminal behavior in the field of gender and sexual violence “.
The president of the LFI group at the National Assembly Mathilde Panot gave her support, as did Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who declared himself “Disgusted by the attacks on Éric Coquerel “.
LFI dealing with cases of gender and sexual violence
There is no doubt: Eric Coquerel’s case shakes LFI and questions its internal handling of gender and sexual violence cases in depth. Several committed feminists question Mediapart: how to act in the absence of direct accounts to characterize the behavior of the deputy?
When questioned on France Info, parliamentarian Sandrine Rousseau, who was one of the witnesses in the Baupin case in 2016, maintained a distinction between Eric Coquerel and another case of sexist and sexual violence allegations, that of Damien Abad: “We don’t just fire people on the basis of rumors we know nothing about. “
This morning on RTL, Rokhaya Diallo insisted on remembering talking about it “Anonymous testimonials” in a source protection approach, e did not try to spread rumors.
It is precisely on this term of indiscretions that the actress and activist Marie Coquille-Chambel has bounced on her blog Mediapart: “The political purpose of the rumors is the informal protection of women among themselves. Because we have only that, in the face of a justice that fails. What image do we give back politically and publicly to victims of sexual violence when an entire political group begins to defend an accused? “
Activist Caroline de Haas regrets that LFI did not react earlier, for example when the article by To chat.
The Eric Coquerel affair will allow the party to initiate a deep interrogation how should it deal with cases of sexual and gender-based violence?
Photo credit: Drutchy2017, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Source: Madmoizelle
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
