Does a president accused of sexual assault by several women deserve the tributes of the Republic posthumously, any president he was? This is the question posed by feminists, as the Paris City Hall prepares to inaugurate the Quai Valéry Giscard d’Estaing on Tuesday, May 9.
In May 2020, a few months before his death, a German journalist accused the former president of touching her buttocks insistently during a photo shoot at the end of 2018. She had filed a complaint. The following year, former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt revealed in her memoirs that Valéry Giscard d’Estaing had put his hand on her thigh during a dinner in Copenhagen in 2002-2003.
“Women are not prey”
Accusations that prompted Alice Coffin, during the last Paris Council where this denomination was voted, to question the mayor of Paris: “We are well aware of the republican tradition which wants there to be a denomination in Paris for the former Presidents of the Republic (…) but it seems important to me that we also listen to the words of the women who have tried to make themselves heard on this man”, began the environmental adviser from Paris, before reporting the testimonies of these women . “Women are not prey, even for the Presidents of the Republic”, continued Alice Coffin, regretting that this situation was “passed over in silence”.
Following Alice Coffin’s intervention, journalist Hélène Devynck reported that on TF1 and LCI, several make-up artists had “told her that they avoided her for the same reasons. He touched their buttocks. “We do not endorse the establishment of plaques commemorating Giscard d’Estaing, a man already in all history textbooks, and who had problematic behavior, sexual assault and harassment”, accuses Pauline Baron of NousToutes , a group fighting against sexual violence.
“I’m not going to tell you that I’m for”
Contacted by 20 minutes, Laurence Patrice, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of memory and who must officiate for the ceremony with Anne Hidalgo, is justified: “It is a decision of the Council of Paris voted almost unanimously. As a memory assistant, I assume, it’s a republican gesture, “says the elected, before adding later:” I’m not going to tell you that I am for honoring people accused of sexual assault. “Or again:” It is a decision that is made at the level of the mayor of Paris. “Visibly annoyed, the assistant explains that” it is useless to oppose it, it is a republican rule, if I had opposed it it would have been done all the same “and that” Valéry Giscard d’ Estaing, it’s still not Gabriel Matzneff [du nom de cet écrivain français accusé d’actes de pédocriminalité]. »
The deputy in charge of gender equality, Hélène Bidard, has a clearer position: no, she will not attend this tribute. “I will not go to this inauguration personally. I don’t find my political interest in going there. I was not consulted. I learned it in the middle of the Paris Council”, reports the elected official, who wishes to add: “The number of convictions for rape is always tiny. A profound change in justice is not yet here. »
“A man of progress and a convinced European”
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing is at the origin of the creation of the Musée d’Orsay, which must bear his name since a vote of the deputies in March 2021. “The name of the ”Quai Valéry Giscard d’Estaing” in front of the Musée d’Orsay has imposed itself in the continuity of the ”Quai François Mitterrand” near the Grand Louvre, and the ”Quai Jacques Chirac” along the Museum of Primitive Arts, thus paying homage to the ambition culture of the former presidents of the French Republic in the heart of the capital of France”, explains the City of Paris in a press release.
“A man of progress and a convinced European, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing paved the way for major social advances such as the legalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy, the lowering of the legal age of majority to 18, the establishment of divorce by mutual consent and the orientation law in favor of people with disabilities”, adds the town hall in this press release.