The new French government just formed by President Emmanuel Macron was embroiled in controversy on Monday three weeks before the legislative elections, a minister defecting from the right-wing opposition being accused of rape.
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Minister Damien Abad, in charge of Solidarity, Autonomy and Disabled People and who rejects these allegations, is accused by two women of rape in 2010 and 2011.
Mr. Abad, himself disabled, was until last week the head of the deputies of the Republican party in the National Assembly before resigning and entering the government.
Two complaints have already been closed, but justice says it is analyzing a new report.
Asked after a government meeting on Monday morning, the new spokesperson, Olivia Grégoire, recalled President Macron’s “zero tolerance” policy in this regard, saying that she was “alongside those who, following aggression or harassment, have the immense courage to speak out”.
At the same time, she considered that it is up to justice to establish the “truth” and “justice is the only one who must and can decide” and indicating that “to her knowledge, no other procedure is in progress “.
This case comes a few days after the withdrawal of two candidates in the June legislative elections, including one from the presidential party convicted of violence against his ex-campaign.
Accusations of violence and sexual assault against political figures in France have gained media coverage in recent years. Prominent political figures have been forced to withdraw from public life.
Monday morning, several political leaders of the left opposition, including the boss of the socialists Olivier Faure demanded the resignation of Mr. Abad, calling for “respecting the word of women”.
The new Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Sunday that she had not been aware of these allegations before reading an article on Saturday from the online media Mediapart, relaying these accusations on the basis of the testimonies of the two women.
She promised to draw “all the consequences” in the event of “new elements” and referral to justice.
“Unprecedented context”
During the Council of Ministers, President Macron called on the government on Monday to engage in “new action in substance and form”, “in the light of new challenges”.
“The government that you are forming is above all (…) a government to act” and “bring the country together”, launched the Head of State in the preamble to this meeting, pointing to “an unprecedented context” with the crisis of the Covid-19, “from which we are barely emerging if it is completely over”, the war in Ukraine and “unprecedented challenges” for French society.
One of the first texts that the next National Assembly will have to examine will concern the purchasing power of the French, confirmed spokesperson Olivia Grégoire, at a time when prices are soaring and economic growth is stagnating.
This meeting of the Council of Ministers marks the launch of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term. It comes into action almost a month after the re-election of the Head of State on April 24 and less than three weeks before the legislative elections on June 12 and 19.
Mr. Macron hopes to see his Renaissance party and his centrist allies win an absolute majority in the new Assembly.
According to a poll published on Monday, the presidential majority and an alliance of left-wing parties under the leadership of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France Insoumise, radical left) are neck and neck in front of the far-right RN party, obtaining 28 respectively. %, 27% and 21% of voting intentions in the first round.
The fate of the new government is suspended at the end of the ballot, half of its members, including the Prime Minister being a candidate and having to leave it if they are beaten, under an instruction issued by Emmanuel Macron in 2017.
Among the new faces, that of the Minister of Education, the academic of Senegalese father and French mother, historian of minorities, Pap Ndiaye, was at the center of attention.
The only real surprise of the new executive, his appointment sparked an outcry within the far right which accuses him of “wanting to deconstruct the country”.
Among the remarks taken up by the opponents of Pap Ndiaye is in particular the idea, expressed in 2017 in the newspaper The worldthat there is “structural racism” in France.