“If they speak today, it is because the silence has become too heavy”, declared Friday, November 26 on franceinfo Virginie Vilar, journalist with Special Envoy and director of the investigation disseminated Thursday evening in which several women accuse the former minister Nicolas Hulot of sexual assault and rape. She says she is in contact with a dozen women accusing Nicolas Hulot, some of whom did not speak in his documentary: “Nicolas Hulot’s intervention on BFM TV aroused a lot of emotion in them, a lot of anger, of indignation, and these women today are thinking about breaking this silence”.
franceinfo: Under what conditions did these women decide to testify and why speak out today, 20 to 30 years after the facts they denounce?
Virginie Vilar: It took a very long time. It’s an investigation that took four years, because it’s a long process. They went through a lot of stages, they decided to talk to me over a coffee. Sometimes it was also I who went to them. There are steps forward, steps back, fear, to finally manage to speak like that with his face uncovered.
If they speak today, it is because the silence has become too heavy, because they cannot cope with what they qualify as trauma.
Virginie Vilar, journalist at Special Envoyto franceinfo
They speak out because they want to put an end to impunity, they speak for the other women who speak today on other matters because they feel invested of a responsibility.
Why did none of these women file a complaint at the material time?
One of the women in the report claims to have been assaulted in Moscow. In the report, I ask him the question. She has an irony answer she tells me “File a complaint at the time? In Moscow? Against a friend of President Jacques Chirac? Against a star host of TF1? Are you kidding!”.
Did you rule out other testimonies in your investigation?
Over the past four years, I’ve been in contact with a dozen women, you haven’t seen them all in the documentary because they didn’t want to speak for the moment.
I do not hide from you that the intervention of Nicolas Hulot on BFM TV aroused a lot of emotion in them, a lot of anger, of indignation, and these women today are thinking about breaking this silence.
Virginie vilarto franceinfo
Since the broadcast, we have received letters. We have decided to publish them. One of them is from Maureen Dor, who is one of the ten women with whom I have been in contact. I have met her on several occasions and what is very interesting is that she has come a long way. When I saw her two years ago, she was afraid to testify and today she publishes this letter to express herself, to support other women, it is very strong.
You contacted Nicolas Hulot. He says he’s devastated and won’t answer you further. Do you hear this argument?
We did everything. Since November 9, we have contacted Nicolas Hulot and his lawyers to hear his words, to ask him for his version of the facts that he has decided not to give us. We asked him to come and explain the facts. We are not a substitute for justice. We are journalists, we investigate and confront the facts.