Hundreds
of female politicians in France have called to end the "impunity" of
sexually abusive male colleagues, as judges launched an investigation into
allegations Denis Baupin, the deputy speaker of parliament, harassed four
women in his party.
Mr Baupin, 53, a former
member of the ecologist EELV party, has resigned as deputy parliamentary
speaker to defend himself against the allegations, which he forcefully denies.
Five years after the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal unleashed soul-searching
within France over sexual abuse in the corridors of power, some 500
politicians, mainly female, signed a petition saying too many women still
remained silent for fear of damaging their career or political party.
They denounced what they
called an Omerta, or law of silence, on unwelcome sexual advances
ranging from harassment to acts of plain aggression.
"It's time to speak
out, to bring this impunity to an end, time for men to change their behaviour
rather than for women to adapt to it," said the petition, published in
Libération, the left-wing daily. It called on parties to adopt clauses in their
statutes to expel members guilty of sexual harassment or abuse.
The petition comes a year after
a group of leading female political reporters issued a call for male politicians to "get your paws off me" and change
their sexist, lecherous ways.
Mr Baupin plans to sue the
women for defamation, saying their claims are "mendacious".
The scandal erupted after
Sandrine Rousseau, EELV spokeswoman, told the Mediapart website and France
Inter radio that Mr Baupin made an aggressive pass at her in October 2011
during a party meeting.
"He pinned me against
the wall with his chest and tried to kiss me. I pushed him away
vigorously."
Although she felt uneasy, she
failed to report the incident. "I immediately thought that it was
absolutely not normal that this should happen to me. But I thought of it as
sexual aggression much later," she said.
Elen Debost, deputy mayor of
the central city of Le Mans, alleged that Mr Baupin had sent her sexually
explicit text messages for several months in 2011.
She too said she only
spoke out after she "realised the scale of the problem, how long it had
lasted, the number of women were involved, the number of people who knew".
"A lot of people kept quiet so as not
to harm his campaign," she added.
Two other ex-colleagues accused Mr Baupin of sexual
impropriety, in one case going back 15 years.
They decided to speak out after seeing Mr Baupin pose
for a photo in support of international women's day. "I wanted to be
sick," said Ms Debost.
Mr Baupin's wife, housing minister Emmanuelle Cosse,
whom he married last year, said on Tuesday that she had known nothing about the
allegations until this week and it was now for the justice system to look into
them. In the meantime, she said she would stand by her husband.
Mr Baupin left the EELV party last month over
"strategic disagreements" ahead of elections next year.
There have been a string of sexual harassment scandals
recently in France, where respect for public figure's private lives long protected them from any public airing of such behaviour.
The latest high-profile case involved Michel Sapin,
the finance minister, accused in a book published in April of sexually
harassing a journalist, an allegation he dismissed as "inexact and
slanderous".
No comments:
Post a Comment