Has the Bayou affair at EELV shown the limits of listening cells on sexist and sexual violence by political parties?

It’s a spectacular counter-attack that turned into a great unpacking. And which illustrates the rather terrifying era in which the public debate threatens to wallow. A political counter-attack first. During a press conference, Julien Bayou’s lawyer, Marie Dosé, clearly accused Sandrine Rousseau of manipulation. She would have instrumentalized the ex-companion of Julien Bayou to eliminate a rival at the approach of the congress of the Greens. Proof of her duplicity, Sandrine Rousseau would have even admitted that there was “nothing criminally reprehensible” with Julien Bayou himself then, last week on the sidelines of the show It’s up to yous. On the set, however, she had just accused him of having wanted to “break the moral health of a woman”, to the point of pushing her to attempt suicide.

>> From the first echoes in the media to the resignation, the Julien Bayou affair in five acts

This is not the first time that environmentalists have torn each other apart in public. But this episode still illustrates the extent of internal hatred in the Greens. It is hard to see how people who want each other and who do so much harm can live together within the same party. And above all, this case opens a new period: an era where party leaders claim to dispense justice under pressure from the media. Because Julien Bayou had to resign. However, according to her lawyer, the internal unit of the Greens which took up the story at the end of June refused four times to audition her, she did not even hear her ex-companion. No testimony, no facts, and no more complaints. Just a rumor swayed in public, on TV…

This therefore underlines the limits of internal party cells, and even sometimes their danger. They are useful first of all to help and listen to female victims. But these authorities must also accompany them through a legal process, which is certainly always complex, encourage them to file a complaint, to turn to justice. Already in the spring, the Insoumis had dismissed one of their candidates, Taha Bouhafs, whom they accused of sexual violence. And for five months, nothing. So either an innocent person has been unfairly smeared and ousted for political reasons; or a culprit always enjoys his impunity for lack of judicial procedure. In both cases, we understand that it is not up to a handful of political leaders to impose their own justice. Except to switch into a totalitarian society.