She is the first woman to come out of anonymity to testify against Eric Coquerel, an unsubmissive deputy, recently elected chairman of the National Assembly’s Finance Commission. Sophie Tissier, left-wing activist, and former figure of the “yellow vests”, denounces the facts which would have taken place during an evening organized during the Left Party Summer Universities, in Grenoble in 2014. She describes on franceinfo “rather heavy flirting” and “inappropriate, offensive gestures”. So many elements which led him, on Sunday July 3, to seize the follow-up committee for sexist and sexual violence (CVSS) of rebellious France, which announced that it would “treat” this report.
>> Testimony. Accusations against Eric Coquerel: “I felt like I was dealing with a predator”, describes activist Sophie Tissier
Sophie Tissier made this referral by email: but what will it be used for and how will it be treated when she is not part of the party? In fact, this follow-up committee – made up of seven members, all women of different generations – will quickly call the alleged victim to collect their testimony. The objective is to build a file with his story, any other testimonies or material evidence.
Created since the end of 2018, each presumed victim, elected official or activist, can alert this CVSS and file their testimony on a dedicated e-mail. What Sophie Tissier did before filing a complaint against the deputy LFI, this Monday, as she had announced on franceinfo. This new file, if it is in line with the previous reports, can be processed between two to four weeks. Since December 2020, this committee has received 15 reports that have led to internal investigations.
All the documents will then be forwarded to the committee for compliance with the principles of insubordinate France. He is in charge of investigating the case: questioning Eric Coquerel and deciding on possible sanctions. The member for Seine-Saint-Denis then risks suspension or expulsion from the party. On the other hand, this structure cannot go much further: it is impossible to force a deputy to resign.
In early May, the gender-based and sexual violence monitoring committee had received several reports against Taha Bouhafs, who was then a candidate for the legislative elections, in particular for sexual assault and sexual violence. The 25-year-old journalist had withdrawn his candidacy before the end of the investigation of the file.
For now, most party executives are united around Eric Coquerel. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Mathilde Panot and Danièle Obono multiply messages of support on social networks. The leader of rebellious France sees in these accusations an attempt to “revenge” of the National Rally after the election of Eric Coquerel as head of the Finance Commission. Questioned on Franceinfo, Monday July 4, Danielle Simonnet believes that the facts denounced “not criminal”.
Following her referral to the pole against sexist and sexual violence, Sophie Tissier will be auditioned. The facts she describes do not seem to be criminal. The day before in Mediapart she considered the facts insufficiently serious to justify a report… #FranceInfo
— Danielle Simonnet (@SimonnetDeputee) July 4, 2022
For his part, Eric Coquerel continues to deny the accusations. The rebellious deputy published, on Sunday July 3, a forum to defend himself in the Sunday Journal, in which he affirms that “These rumors are unfounded.”