The activist LFI Sophie Tissier accuses the president of the finance committee of the assembly of “heavy flirt” and an outrageous, offensive, harassing “behavior, during an evening in Grenoble in 2014.
Le Monde
Eric Coquerel continued to benefit from the support of left figures after the complaint for sexual harassment filed against him by Sophie Tissier, Monday July 4. The left -wing activist evokes facts “which can akin to sexual assault”. The respondent, deputy (La France Insoumise, LFI) of Seine-Saint-Denis and president of the finance committee of the National Assembly, disputes these accusations.
Invited on BFM-TV during this weekend, M Me tissier had denounced “inappropriate gestures, wandering hands”, during a evening organized by LFI in Grenoble in August 2014 , evoking “a healthy, sticky look”, “a heavy flirt” and an outrageous, offensive, harassing “behavior from the deputy. According to her, Eric Coquerel would also have sent him texts in which he offered to take her to his hotel. Sophie Tissier also claimed, on Sunday, having made a report to the Sexual Violence Monitoring Committee of Insoumise France.
Guest from Europe 1 Tuesday morning, the deputy (LFI) of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Manuel Bompard, supported Eric Coquerel, who was according to him “all legitimacy to continue his work”. “No one has ever defended the idea that anyone, whatever the nature of the accusations, had to resign from their political mandate” in the event of accusations aimed at reprehensible sexual behavior, “he said. “First, we must look at if there are testimonies, secondly if they are detailed, thirdly if the nature of the facts in question is similar, for example, to rapes, sexual harassment or sexual assault” , he continued, before judging that “justice will do its job” since it is seized.
“You cannot mix everything”
The deputy also refused to draw a parallel between the case of Damien Abad, the former minister of solidarity dismissed from the government after the opening of a preliminary investigation for attempted rape, and that of Eric Coquerel. In his eyes, “all those who try to put on the same plane these two cases are in a glaring and total bad faith”.
His colleague Adrien Quatennens, deputy (LFI) of the North, had said more or less the same on Monday evening, on LCI . He had called not to “draw up an equal sign” between the two cases, deeming incomparable accusations against Damien Abad, according to which he “potentially drugged and violated”, and those against Eric Coquerel, targeting an “insistent dredge there is Eight years “, coming from a complainant who herself declared that he does not see anything” criminal reprehensible “. “You cannot mix everything and make a common pot with all of this,” said Mr. Quatennens.
He called to “look precisely also who are the people who make rumors, what are their political intentions”, because “we can also not be naive” – which does not “question the Metro movement or the right cause of women, “he said. The right and the national rally had done everything, during last week, to prevent the election of Eric Coquerel at the head of one of the commissions of the most influential assembly, whose president is empowered to receive Confidential tax information.
A time candidate for the nomination for the post, against Mr. Coquerel, the socialist Valérie Rabault called Monday evening in the program” Public Audition “ de LCP, Public Senate and Le Figaro, to respect for the presumption of innocence, a” very important principle “. “Since there has been a complaint, I hope that justice can treat this case quickly,” she continued, adding that she was “amazed that yesterday [Sunday] was concentrated only On this question, even though nobody talks about state deficits, that we have raw materials for which we cannot stock up. ” “I would like us to talk about real subjects,” she added.