French judges on Tuesday opened an investigation into multiple claims of sexual harassment against former deputy parliamentary speaker Denis Baupin, as experts welcomed an end to the omerta surrounding such alleged abuse by politicians.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged investigators to “shed full light on whatever took place,” saying sexual harassment “must be fought with the greatest force.”
Speaking on French radio, Valls rejected “intolerable machismo,” saying: “When a woman says no, it means no.”
Baupin’s wife, French Housing Minister Emmanuelle Cosse, said she was shocked by the allegations made on Monday by eight women, including four members of ecologist EELV party, of which she and her husband are members.
“We are talking about acts of extreme seriousness and if they are proven, they must be dealt with by the courts,” she told France Info radio.
She said she still had faith in her husband and knew nothing of the accusations until they appeared in the media on Monday.
“I was very affected as a woman, as a wife, as a mother and also as a minister,” she said.
Baupin, 53, on Monday resigned his post as one of parliament’s six deputy speakers, saying he wanted to focus on fighting the allegations, which his lawyer described as “mendacious, defamatory and baseless.”
Baupin has launched defamation proceedings against the media outlets that published the women’s allegations.
Paris prosecutors said their investigation would focus on gathering statements from the alleged victims and that no criminal complaint had been lodged against Baupin. The statute of limitations for harassment in France is three years, which would exclude most of the alleged incidents, some of which date back 15 years.
Several feminist organizations were due to stage a rally in front of the National Assembly in Paris yesterday to demand that Baupin quit parliament.
Regardless of the outcome of the preliminary inquiry into Baupin, experts welcomed the greater freedom to discuss harassment.
“I think it’s the end of the omerta,” said Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, who teaches political science at Reims University, using the Italian mafia’s term for a code of silence. “Several male politicians must be a bit worried today because this type of behavior is frequent.”
Le Mans Deputy Mayor Elen Debost claimed she received sexually explicit text messages from Baupin for several months in 2011.
She said she did not realize the scale of the problem until approached by the media and that “a lot of people kept quiet so as not to harm his campaign.”
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