“In 2021, 24 cases have been reported to [la] cell” anti-harassment listening device implemented for 3 years in the National Assembly “and eight cases in the first quarter of 2022”, announces Yaël Braun-Pivet, the President of the National Assembly Thursday, September 22 on franceinfo. You have to add eight others in the second quarter of 2022, bringing the number to 40 and no longer 32, she then clarified on Twitter.
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“These are not just cases of sexual harassment, there is also moral harassment, pressure. It was important to have a cell that largely covers these situations”, she continues.
“We encourage people who are victims of it to systematically denounce it, insists Yaël Braun-Pivet. The victim will be taken care of and if the facts relate to an offence, there is a report under article 40 [du Code de la procédure pénale] to judicial authorities”.
Yael Braun-Pivet welcomes the importance “to have a unit that largely covers these situations” for three years within the National Assembly, a unit “unique”, she insists, who “does not exist in the Senate”. Posters were hung “everywhere” within the institution “to indicate the existence of this cell and the way in which” victims can contact her, she explains.
“In the National Assembly, we have really lifted the omerta that can exist in certain circles and it is fundamental to know that in the Assembly we are not letting anything pass today.”
Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assemblyat franceinfo
The President of the National Assembly affirms that there is “less and less” inappropriate behavior today in the hemicycle. She believes that there are several factors that help explain this progress: “on the one hand the fact of being in a very mixed assembly and the awareness of the men who mean that it is no longer a women’s fight but a men-women fight and there is the accession of women to the most high responsibilities”.
Asked about the accusations of violence against women within the Nupes, Yaël Braun-Pivet, on appeal to “everyone’s responsibility” : “We have a very clear rule. You cannot be elected or stand for election if you have been convicted of a certain number of offences. Then, continues the President of the National Assembly, if you exercise your mandate and there is a suspicion, you can continue, legally, to exercise your mandate. This must be taken into account by everyone and it is everyone’s responsibility to ask themselves if, given a particular situation, I am able to exercise my mandate”. “It is a personal assessment”.
About Adrien Quatennens and Julien Bayou, Yaël Braun-Pivet evokes “cases of suspicion”. “There is a handrail, there is an open investigation”, recalls the President of the National Assembly who says she is waiting for justice to do “his work”.
“Suspicion should not have such a significant consequence as the resignation of a parliamentarian”
Yael Braun-Pivetat franceinfo
In contrast, “If there is a conviction then the situation will have evolved and we will have to draw the consequences.” Returning more specifically to the case of Julien Bayou, Yael Braun-Pivet greet her “decision” socket “with full responsibility, individually and with his political group”, a “good way to do it”, according to her.
As President of the National Assembly, Yael Braun-Pivet considers that it is not his responsibility to ask “It is up to MPs in such and such a situation to take such and such an action outside of any legal framework. We have a legal framework and my role is to enforce it”.