“We will work for six months to take stock of the situation”

“The goal is to increase the number of hearings and we will work for six months to take stock of the situation.” on the violence denounced in particular in the cinema, affirmed Wednesday May 22 on France Bleu Berry the Renaissance deputy of Cher, François Cormier-Bouligeon, appointed secretary of the commission of inquiry relating to the violence committed in the sectors of cinema, audiovisual, performing arts, fashion and advertising.

The creation of this body was requested by Judith Godrèche, who became one of the figures of the #MeToo movement in France and who filed a complaint against the filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon for sexual and physical violence dating back to her adolescence. This commission will investigate for six months to “try to identify the mechanisms and failures which lead to the incriminated facts”he explained. “We are going to issue recommendations to try to strengthen the law, to protect,” continued the elected official from Cher. “We must both free speech and protect the presumption of innocence, it is really not a simple subject and the jurist that I am asks a lot of questions”he said.

“The construction site is vast”, warned François Cormier-Bouligeon, especially since with the holding of the Olympic Games and the parliamentary recess, this brings the time available to the Commission to carry out its work to only around ten weeks. The environmentalist rapporteur Francesca Pasquini clarified to France Culture that the body “will not work in an emergency” to achieve “legislative recommendations but not only”.

Several dozen hearings are planned in the coming weeks of all those involved in the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence, but also of victims whose testimonies are essential, even if they could be confronted with the treatment of certain cases by the courts. “It is the justice system which will take care of the perpetrators’ cases, not us. We must take care of the system and what makes it unhealthy,” warned the president of this commission, Erwan Balanant (MoDem). “We are not going to be there to have fun, to play prosecutors in this commission”he added.