Faced with the controversy that is shaking LFI, in the wake of the Adrien Quatennens case, accused of domestic violence, Ernestine Ronai, head of the Observatory of violence against women in Seine-Saint-Denis, considers positive that the work of associations “begins to be heard”, at a time when “our society is no longer tolerant” on the issue.
franceinfo: How do you receive the words of Manuel Bompard who believes that if it is never acceptable, “a slap is not equal to a man who beats his wife every day”?
Ernestine Ronai: It is not the speech of a responsible politician, it is not audible, it arouses indignation. At the same time, it sparks debate and that’s what I want to hear: everyone is on the issue. A few years ago, there would have been no debate, all this indicates that there is progress and that our work is beginning to be heard. What is new is that our society is no longer tolerant of violence: it makes the buzz, we talk about it, and that’s what matters. It means that the conscience of society is improving, we understand better what we are talking about. The trivialization effort does not work. Everyone will ask themselves the question: is violence, whatever it is, acceptable?
“No, intimate violence is not acceptable, it should no longer be trivialized or minimized, it is always dangerous.”
Ernestine Ronaiat franceinfo
What does the relativism of these declarations inspire in you?
There is a poor knowledge of what violence is: there is no minor violence, you never know how it will degenerate. It doesn’t necessarily start with a slap in the face because there is before, all the psychological violence that the woman has suffered. The first revealed are never the first violence actually suffered. There is always psychological violence before, and then the physical. Domestic violence is also unpredictable: a slap, you don’t know how far it will go. In the penal code, a slap is voluntary violence, and humiliations and devaluations are moral harassment in the couple. All this exists in the penal code and the law is the same for everyone, politician or not.
How do you assess the state of the fight against this violence?
In 2021, there were 122 women killed by their spouse, but there were also 190 attempted femicides and 209 women who committed suicide due to psychological violence, according to one estimate, and I don’t have a figure on attempts to suicide. All the women killed or tried to kill represent 521 people, so much more than one every day. It is extremely dangerous. That’s why it shouldn’t be missed. But what marks our era is the decline in social tolerance vis-à-vis this violence, and this is what must be cultivated and increased.