The first days of the new popular union were disturbed by the case, between anti -racism and defense of women’s speech.
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Barely launched their new popular union, the lefts find themselves weakened by accusations of sexual violence targeting one of their candidates: Taha Bouhafs, young militant journalist from Echirolles (Isère), now dismissed from his inauguration to Vénissieux, in the Rhône. The executives of the new popular, ecological and social union (Nuts) would have gone well from this affair which pollutes their first week of the campaign. The leaders of La France Insoumise (LFI), some of whom aware of the accusations aimed at him, continued to defend the young man, who is the target, on social networks, of racist words.
No question that the decision not to invest it is interpreted as a disavowal for the anti -racist fight. No question either of ignoring the words of women. This is, in any case, what the frameworks of the movement explain. The activist, meanwhile, in his response to Mediapart on Tuesday, assimilated the accusation to one of the “slanders” targeting him, while saying that she came for him from a “ex-girlfriend”. On the merits, he says “accept the process of welcoming the word” of women and, therefore, to withdraw the campaign.
Four more or less formalized testimonies, some writings, others not yet aimed at the activist for alleged facts resembling rape, multiple sexual assaults, sexist harassment and sexual assault. These women have pointed out to France Insoumise, but also outside the movement. Thus, feminist activist Caroline de Haas but also Sandrine Rousseau collected the word of alleged victims. Tuesday, May 3, in the evening, the environmental candidate listened to a woman’s testimony, a story that “describes rape,” she said. This woman hesitated to speak, but the possibility that Taha Bouhafs was elected deputy would have decided her. She feared that he would not benefit from parliamentary immunity once elected, explains Sandrine Rousseau, who advised her to write her testimony to have him reread by a lawyer.
The accusations not made public
The environmentalist judges that in the work “work has been done” and hopes that “this spotlight on sexual violence will also be used to look at what is going on in other parties”. Renaissance, for example, invested in Dordogne a former political adviser at the Elysée sentenced for domestic violence, Jérôme Peyrat, she notes.
Like Clémentine Autain, the environmentalist is one of these identified figures, by their own history, for their fight against sexual and sexist violence. They are the ones who, in this case, have, more than others, the confidence of the complainants. The LFI deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis, for her part, received this same testimony by email on Friday May 6, became aware of it the next day and has since met the complainant, with whom she exchanges every day. “I was sometimes wrongly accused of passing the fight against the rights of women, but I will continue to defend both, head-on,” she keeps both ends, maybe it bothers . “
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