"If I were Prime Minister, I would say to Damien Abad: + I have no particular reason to think that women lie, because I don't see the reasons that would motivate them to do so. There is a doubt that exists today. The word of women must be respected. So, pending a court decision, I hope that you are not in the government +", he declared on France Inter about the minister just named Solidarity.

Mr. Faure mentioned a "precautionary measure" which "does not call into question the presumption of innocence".

For Sandrine Rousseau, finalist in the EELV primary, "the question is not his resignation, but the fact that he is dismissed from his post as a precautionary principle".

"I think Elisabeth Borne should tell him that he has no place (at the Council of Ministers, editor's note) and that it is not a question of personal resignation. She must take her responsibilities".

"We have to send a strong enough message to women, that their word counts. It's not just a rumour, there is a complaint that has been filed. Obviously, LREM was aware, obviously the cabinet of Élisabeth Borne was informed before the publication of the article", she added on RTL on Monday.

Sandrine Rousseau (d) and the national secretary of EELV Julien Bayou, on September 19, 2021 in Paris at the announcement of the results of the environmental primary Sameer Al-DOUMY AFP

For his part, Eric Zemmour, candidate Reconquest!

presidential guest on Cnews, said he was "suspicious" and "doubtful about the methods of Mediapart which seeks permanent information", positioning himself against "the precautionary principle" but in favor of "respect for the presumption of 'innocence".

Christian Jacob, president LR, assured him at Point that he had "never been seized, neither by the Observatory of sexual and sexist violence nor by the services of the National Assembly".

He stressed that faced with "rumors of a complaint filed (...) in 2017", Mr. Abad "replied that all of this was false and that he had never been summoned by the courts" .

Appointed Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Disabled People, Mr. Abad, himself disabled, faces serious accusations of rape in an article published on Saturday by Médiapart, which he denies "with the greatest force ".

According to Mediapart, two women, whose testimony the newspaper collected, accuse Damien Abad, 42, of rape in 2010 and 2011. A report was made last week to LR, LREM and the justice system, which says it is analyzing it. .

The Paris prosecutor's office has already dismissed two complaints in 2012 and 2017 from one of the complainants.

© 2022 AFP