On December 17, 2012, Maureen Kearney, union leader at Areva, was found tied up in her home. On her stomach, the letter “A” was carved, and she was also raped. At that time, she investigated secret contracts between France and China concerning the design of a new nuclear reactor…
It is such an improbable political thriller that in 2022 it was adapted into a film by director Jean-Paul Salomé under the title The Syndicalist. Actress Isabelle Huppert plays Maureen Kearney, a whistleblower who becomes a suspect.
On December 17, 2012, Maureen Kearney, a fifty-year-old of Irish origin, was found tied to a chair by her cleaning lady, at her home in Yvelines. The letter “A” was carved into her stomach and she was a victim of rape. Not having seen her attacker, she explained to investigators that this attack could have a connection with her professional activity. Indeed, she is an influential union leader at Areva, the flagship of French civil nuclear power.
At that time, the trade unionist was investigating secret contracts between France and China concerning the design of a new nuclear reactor. Convinced that these strategic negotiations affected the future of Areva, increasingly eclipsed by its rival EDF, the other pillar of French nuclear power, she tried to alert politicians and the media. In the fall of 2012, at the peak of the mobilization, she received anonymous threats.
News item or state affair?
Should we see a link with the attack of which she was the victim? Justice did not believe it. She even doubted the reality of the facts, going so far as to pursue Maureen Kearney. She was first convicted of staging her attack, before being exonerated on appeal.
For this documentary with the air of a nuclear thriller, “Affaires Sensitive” interviewed leading players, such as former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the first director of Areva Anne Lauvergeon or the former EDF manager responsible for the Chinese market , Hervé Machenaud.
A documentary by Jean Bulot and Romain Weber for Kino
“Sensitive Affairs”, a France Télévisions, France Inter and INA co-production, adapted from a France Inter program.
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