Since the political and media emergence of Sandrine Rousseau, in the summer of 2021, the elected environmentalist is one of the most harassed and cyber-harassed female politicians in the country. In an interview with TF1 Info journalist, Paul Larrouturouthe Paris MP talks about what she has suffered since the environmentalists’ primary for the 2022 presidential election.
“We must understand that this violence is not minor violence, sub-violence. Being insulted, spit in the face all day long, it has an impact on our mental health, on whether we feel good or not,” Sandrine Rousseau told Paul Larrouturou.
Female politicians experience much (much) more harassment than male politicians. And moreover, if the TF1 Info journalist chose to do this interview with Sandrine Rousseau, it is because several deputies, from all sides, told her that what she received far exceeded their respective files.
“We do not accept that women are in power”
“Even today in 2024, we do not accept that women are in power and that they demand power, that they seek power,” explains the Paris MP. That’s what people criticize me for, it’s the fact that I don’t have false modesty or that I’m not playing the role of the good, kind little girl that people expect. I say I’m here and I want to change things and that’s inaudible, it’s unacceptable for part of the population. »
Regarding the death threats, Sandrine Rousseau admits to having been at certain times “really afraid” that one of the people who sent her death threats would take action. “Today I never walk in the street without being hypervigilant, when I take the metro I never stand at the edge of the platform, ever. I stick to the wall. I receive so many things that I say to myself ‘these people exist’, so who’s to say to me that one day I won’t cross paths with one of them. »
However, she assures her, the Paris MP will not let the matter go. “There’s nothing worth going through all of this.” But I will not give up the fight. It’s a very poor understanding of myself to imagine that threats are going to stop me. (…) Behind the fight I am leading are all the young girls who are cyberharassed much more than others. I want to tell them, I want to tell you that not only are you not alone but if today I speak it is for you and I hope with all my heart that these words will help you yourself to raise your head . »