EDIT at 2 p.m.: According to our colleagues from Europe 1, Sophie Tissier filed a complaint against Eric Coquerel on Monday morning. She accuses him of sexual assault at a party in 2014.
“The movement now plans to file a complaint against all the people who spread slander (…) on social networks. “It is in these terms that the LFI deputy Eric Coquerel, on Sunday dismissed the suspicions of inappropriate behavior with women targeting him. Since Thursday, the newly elected chairman of the finance committee has denied it as a whole, while on Sunday Sophie Tissier announced that she had filed a “pre-complaint” and considered a complaint. The left-wing activist denounces “offensive, harassing” behavior, “inappropriate gestures, wandering hands”. 20 minutes returns to the “Coquerel affair”, while the deputy EELV (Nupes) Sandrine Rousseau assured BFMTV that she had personally investigated: “We do not know at all the extent, nor on what this rumor is based, it is not not for lack of looking, I really tried (…) to find, because I too was told this rumour. »
Who is Eric Coquerel?
Eric Coquerel, born December 30, 1958 in Courbevoie, is an LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis. Elected last Thursday to the key post of chairman of the finance committee of the National Assembly, he is presented as a defender of working-class neighborhoods, and one of the promoters with Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the fight against Islamophobia. Even if he assures with a smile that he had “16/20 in the baccalaureate on the turn of the rigor of Mauroy”, Eric Coquerel could not claim such a convincing pedigree on the economy as the former head of deputies PS Valérie Rabault.
However, the one who was the neighbor of Eric Coquerel in committee during the previous legislature testifies: “He was very present, very diligent, this is not the case for everyone. He’s someone who worked on his files. Through his availability to journalists, he has established himself over the past ten years as one of the most media-focused Mélenchonists. But it is also omnipresent in demonstrations, pickets, student struggles or in neighborhoods.
What is he accused of?
This Sunday, left-wing activist Sophie Tissier publicly denounced “offensive, harassing” behavior towards her on the part of deputy Eric Coquerel. This former figure of “yellow vests” announced that he had filed a “pre-complaint” and considered filing a complaint. Guest of BFMTV the same evening, Sophie Tissier described “inappropriate gestures, wandering hands”, during an evening organized by the party in 2014, evoking “a salacious, sticky look”, and during the dance evening “a clumsy flirting”, “outrageous, offensive, harassing” behavior on the part of the deputy.
According to the activist, Eric Coquerel also sent her text messages offering to take her to her hotel. “It was not a physical attack, in the sense that there was no physical violence, she judged, but the harassment was still traumatic”. Sophie Tissier also said that she had spoken about it openly in the party, in particular to LFI MEP Leila Chaibi and press officer Juliette Prados.
What is the origin of these accusations?
Invited Thursday evening on RTL, Rokhaya Diallo mentioned, without further details, “sources within LFI” questioning the behavior of Eric Coquerel. While reacting to the appointment of the deputy to head the finance committee, the author and activist, who assured that she was “aware that these are accusations”, expressed her “astonishment” and mentioned the “quite sensitive” question of testimonies concerning the “personality” of the deputy: “I have several sources within LFI, I have heard several times from women who have spoken to me about the behavior he would have with women. »
In December 2018, the magazine Causette had already published in an article entitled “La France insoumise prefers them submitted? “. In this long-term investigation, looking into the prevailing sexism at LFI, the journalist, citing two anonymous testimonies (including that of Sophie Tissier), had assured that a “responsible, now an LFI deputy” was accused of “slippages known and current” by several young activists of the time.
What do LFI and Eric Coquerel say?
Questioned by BFMTV, Eric Coquerel disputed any inappropriate behavior towards women, mentioned a ” flirt “ and started a counter-offensive. “I’ll look at the file, I’ll see. I do not rule out filing a complaint for defamation (…) Even a just cause like #MeToo can be instrumentalized, “explained the deputy, considering about his accuser that they were going to” do pschitt “. Eric Coquerel also defended his innocence in a column published in the Sunday newspaperensuring that he had “never exercised physical or psychological violence or coercion to obtain a report, which characterizes the gateway to criminal behavior in the field of gender-based and sexual violence”.
On his side and on his blog, the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon supported the deputy, denouncing an “infamous operation of slander”, and saying his “disgust” in the face of “this vile baseness”. He considered that the accusations were “timely relayed without restraint, investigation or verification of any kind” and had “made it possible to ‘get people talking about something else'”, attacking in particular a journalist from BFM TV. He considered it “urgent to rid” the fight against gender-based and sexual violence “of people who have made it a means of instrumentalizing their political resentment against LFI”.
What follow-up should be given to these accusations?
Sophie Tissier made a report to the LFI sexual violence monitoring committee, responsible for receiving alerts concerning members of the movement, to possibly investigate. “I have just contacted the sexual gender-based violence committee (CVSS) of the FI, in order to endorse my testimony attesting to the unacceptable behavior of Eric Coquerel. It is a form of aggression that must be denounced because it is part of the continuum of violence against women,” the activist tweeted.
It should be noted that the committee had assured, Thursday, to have never received a report about Eric Coquerel. “Several editorial offices have carried out journalistic investigations, recalled Sunday the close friend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Nothing ever came out for lack of having found a testimony that could be related to criminal behavior, a fortiori criminal. For his part, Danièle Obono confirmed that the movement monitoring committee was “seized” and that he was going to “see what characteristics are in this report”. And the deputy LFI to specify to BFMTV: “It is important that we know exactly what it is about. »