The Institut Montaigne announced Sunday evening the resignation of its director Laurent Bigorgne, who will be tried before the Paris Criminal Court, suspected of having drugged an employee at a party without his knowledge.
Mr. Bigorgne, who has led the liberal think-tank since 2011, submitted his resignation this Sunday, which “was accepted by the members of the Steering Committee during an exceptional meeting”according to a press release from the Institut Montaigne.
The organization adds put “everything to support its employees during this period by providing them with a psychological cell” and decided to “entrusting a third party with the conduct of an internal investigation relating in particular to the working environment within the Institute”.
The Institut Montaigne Steering Committee, Camille Godeau, Deputy Director, as well as the Management Committee, will ensure the continuity of its activities under the supervision of its President, Henri de Castries and its two Vice-Presidents, Jean-Dominique Senard. and David Azéma, according to the press release.
At the end of his police custody which began on Friday, Mr. Bigorgne was the subject of a summons by report on March 10 before the court for “administration of a harmful substance followed by incapacity not exceeding eight days by a person acting under the manifest influence of narcotics”.
MDMA positive
Invited to the home of Laurent Bigorgne, one of his collaborators, aged about forty, filed a complaint overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, after an early evening spent in his company. According to The Parisianshe reportedly told police that she suddenly felt ill after drinking a glass of champagne and went straight to a hospital where she was told she had symptoms of drug abuse.
According to a toxicological report from the complainant, she was positive for MDMA, a synthetic drug from the amphetamine family also called ecstasy. He, according to the complainant, would have taken cocaine.
Created in 2000, the Institut Montaigne is a think tank of liberal inspiration, which brings together business leaders, senior civil servants, academics, and which regularly submits studies and reports, in particular addressed to the public authorities.
Mr. Bigorgne is a prominent economist who regularly appears in the media. He was part of a committee of 34 senior civil servants, political figures and the economic world appointed at the end of 2017 by the then Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, to draw up the reform of the administration.