In a letter dated May 30, sent to Laure Beccuau, public prosecutor of Paris, revealed by The Parisian and that franceinfo was able to consult on Wednesday June 1, the mayor of the 7th arrondissement Rachida Dati made a report against Gilles Le Gendre, deputy for Paris of the majority, for “sexual and moral harassment”. The former Keeper of the Seals requests the opening of an investigation by the courts.
In this letter, Rachida Dati first evokes accusations of sexual harassment against Gilles Le Gendre. They are carried, she explains, by at least one parliamentary collaborator. According to several sources contacted by franceinfo, this woman denounces inappropriate attitudes on the part of the former president of the LREM group in the National Assembly between September 2018 and September 2020. On the other hand, she never wanted to file a complaint or make a report. internal, say these sources.
Rachida Dati also mentions a press release written in February 2020 by seven unions of parliamentary staff. In this press release, the former boss of the deputies En Marche! is accused of lies by claiming during a morning of France Inter, still in February 2020, to be unaware of any case of harassment in its ranks. He had however, according to the unions, been alerted at that time to at least one specific case. Rachida Dati wonders about the “non-denunciation” of these offenses by Gilles Le Gendre “of which he was aware, even of crimes if the limits of moral harassment had been crossed”.
These are elements which justify, according to the mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris, the opening of a criminal investigation. In a press release, Gilles Le Gendre denounces political manipulation as the legislative elections approach and announces that he is filing a complaint for slanderous denunciation.
According to Gilles Le Gendre, Rachida Dati becomes a “self-proclaimed character witness, days before an election [législative] in a constituency of which I am the outgoing deputy and she, one of the mayors, support of one of my competitors”. “By implicating me personally, Ms. Dati is reviving the rumor that was used for crude manipulation to try to prevent my election as president of the group La République en Marche in September 2018”, he explains.