Eric Coquerel comes out of his silence: the deputy publishes a forum in the columns of the Sunday newspaper to defend himself from accusations of harassment or sexual violence, which have re-emerged in recent days, just after his election as chairman of the Assembly’s Finance Committee.
>> We summarize the controversy around the deputy Eric Coquerel, questioned by Rokhaya Diallo for “his behavior with women”
The elected representative of rebellious France writes and repeats that “These rumors are unfounded”. He let them run in recent years so as not to highlight them, but they are now relayed in the media by a feminist figure: Rokhaya Diallo, who spoke on RTL about “behaviours” inappropriate.
“How to react to a rumor that is not based on any complaint, no report to the internal unit of LFI, despite frequent calls and press releases from LFI to be able to do so, no public testimony, no results of serious journalistic investigation in addition five years?”
Eric Coquerelin the Sunday newspaper
The deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis claims never to have “exerted physical or psychological violence or coercion to obtain a report”, not to have had “criminal behavior in the field of gender-based and sexual violence”. He evokes in particular the testimony of a former activist of the Left Party, Sophie Tissier, who had implicated him anonymously in the magazine Causette 4 years ago.
In Mediapart, she recounts today in more detail this evening of 2016 during which Eric Coquerel made her dance. She describes some “wandering hands” around her hips and text messages demanding they get back together. But all this “it was not an attack, not serious enough” to be reported, said this activist to Médiapart. For Eric Coquerel, the proof is there: it was a “flirt”there is no evidence of “criminal facts”he repeats.
In this forum, the now chairman of the National Assembly’s Finance Committee goes further and displays his “full solidarity” with the #MeToo movement. He absolutely wants to avoid his text appearing “as a criticism” of this movement for the liberation of speech. But Eric Coquerel warns: “like any just cause, it can be exploited”.
“Our society must revolutionize itself by protecting itself from sinking into rumour. Public questioning should not be possible without precise, identified, verified reporting, thus respecting the voice of women. Otherwise, it is the door open to arbitrary and to the highly reactionary ‘there is no smoke without fire’.”
Eric Coquerel, LFI MPin the Sunday newspaper
He considers that the internal procedures put in place for listening and reporting within the parties must in particular be improved. Finally, Eric Coquerel delivers an astonishing anecdote: this moment when a comrade told him “made it clear that when you were a 50-year-old man of power, you could no longer have the same relationships with women, seduction or simply relationships”. A “lesson” which he says he retained.