The pressure is increasing on Mathias Vicherat. Around a hundred students from Sciences Po Paris have occupied the historic building on rue Saint-Guillaume (7th arrondissement) since Wednesday evening, to demand the resignation of the director, involved in a case of domestic violence.
“An occupation was voted for yesterday by a show of hands during a general assembly which brought together between 250 and 300 students, at the call of the “left” unions of Sciences Po, Solidaires and the Student Union,” said indicated to AFP Inês Fontenelle, from the Student Union. At 8:30 a.m., the building was still occupied, according to her, by around a hundred students. A support rally is planned for 9 a.m. in front of 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, the historic entrance.
Letter to students
Mathias Vicherat and his partner Anissa Bonnefont, who mutually accused each other of domestic violence, were taken into police custody on Sunday evening before being released on Monday. A preliminary investigation was ordered by the Paris prosecutor’s office. The director of Sciences Po Paris wrote on Tuesday to students, teachers, employees, members of the institution’s councils to ensure that he “hears” their “emotion” and promises to “meet them very soon”.
Around fifty students had already blocked the entrance to the historic Sciences Po Paris building on Tuesday morning, at the call of the institution’s student unions, to demand the resignation of its director. The general assembly and the current occupation of the establishment are “yet another cry of warning reflecting the indignation of students in the face of the continued climate of impunity”, underlines the press release from the AG.
“Insult to all victims”
“The administration’s response can only be the suspension of Mathias Vicherat’s functions, as well as his resignation,” he continues. According to the students, “his remaining at the head of our establishment is an insult to all victims of sexist and sexual violence”.
The arrival of Mathias Vicherat as director of Sciences Po is “imbued with a context marked by the Sciences Porcs testimonial movement, the incestuous violence of Olivier Duhamel and the resignation of Frédéric Mion”, estimates the press release. Mathias Vicherat took over as head of Sciences Po Paris in November 2021 from Frédéric Mion, who was forced to resign in February of that year for having concealed suspicions of incest targeting political scientist Olivier Duhamel.