“If his perception – I’m not saying it’s the reality – is that we wanted to intimidate him, it’s a mistake. It’s even a fault”conceded on Monday June 13 on franceinfo Christophe Castaner, president of the group La République en Marche (LREM) in the National Assembly, about the high school student from Tarn who questioned Emmanuel Macron on ministers “accused of rape” and who, the next day, was questioned by the gendarmes.
Thursday, June 9, during a trip by the President of the Republic to Gaillac (Tarn), Laura, an 18-year-old high school student, addressed the Head of State. “You put at the head of the state men who are accused of rape and violence against women. Why?”, she launched to Emmanuel Macron, in reference to the Ministers of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and the Minister of Solidarity, Damien Abad, both accused of rape. A sequence very relayed on social networks with the hashtag #laquestiondelaura. The young woman claims that the gendarmes went to her high school the next day, taking her out of her classroom in the middle of class for a “maintenance”that she lived as a “intimidation”. She explains that the conversation quickly turned to her remarks the day before, a gendarme telling her that this “was not to be done”.
Christophe Castaner recalls that the gendarmes of the Tarn “have apologized” for this approach described as “clumsy”, in a press release published overnight from Friday to Saturday on social networks. They say they wanted to hear from the young woman about a sexual assault she said she suffered, “to propose to him to collect a possible complaint”according to the words of the press release.
The president of the LREM group in the National Assembly believes that this young woman is “legit” to challenge Emmanuel Macron and that “his perception is important” especially after “shock” for having apostrophized the President of the Republic. “If she feels she was almost threatened, in that, it is a mistake”he said.
Christophe Castaner also pleads for a “clumsiness” military policemen, “but in no way was it a pressure on her. That, I am convinced of”. “I know the gendarmes of our country well enough to know that it is not their culture”he added, welcoming “committed men and women”. Christophe Castaner admits that “If this young girl had a feeling of pressure, I understand that it is unbearable”. He adds : “When I saw this young girl, I thought of mine.“