Christophe Girard, Culture Assistant to the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo (PS), announced that he had decided to resign on Thursday, after attacks by elected environmentalists following his hearing in March in the investigation "for rapes on minors ”targeting Gabriel Matzneff.
"I am 64 years old, a fulfilling family life and numerous cultural, political and associative commitments, and I have no desire to rot my life any longer and to bother to justify myself permanently for something that does not does not exist, ”he wrote in a statement.
Let Anne Hidalgo "exercise her mandate calmly"
“In the general deleterious climate (...) where our law and the Penal Code are trampled on, and even if today's demonstration against me has only brought together about twenty people, the first of my priorities is that Anne Hidalgo, brilliantly re-elected Mayor of Paris, can exercise her mandate calmly, ”writes Christophe Girard.
pic.twitter.com/HVvicCkrJE
- Christophe Girard (@cgirard) July 23, 2020The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo "takes note of this resignation", "welcomes this courageous decision" and "renews his friendship", according to those around him. The elected representative of the XVIIIth arrondissement remains a councilor for Paris, affirms once again to support “more than ever the fight against discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia and misandry”. He also specifies maintaining his complaint for defamation.
For several days, and in a letter addressed to Anne Hidalgo, elected environmentalists and feminists demanded his suspension from the post of deputy and the opening of an internal investigation in the City of Paris, believing that Christophe Girard had to explain himself on his links and actions with Gabriel Matzneff.
"Denial to the City of Paris"
"Denial to the City of Paris", "Girard Resignation", "Anne you're serious? »: Armed with placards and slogans, several dozen activists and elected officials demonstrated under the windows of the Town Hall, where the first Council of Paris of the term of office was held.
"It is not enough to have a clean criminal record to be an assistant to the City of Paris, you also need ethical and moral qualities, the support for Gabriel Matzneff disqualifies Christophe Girard for this kind of responsibilities", had declared during this gathering of the elected ecologist Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu.
Investigators interviewed Christophe Girard, secretary general of Maison Yves-Saint Laurent between 1986 and 1987, in March, a structure which provided financial support to writer Gabriel Matzneff in the 1980s, according to several accounts.
Three years after MeToo
The writer is targeted by an investigation for "rape of minors" opened by the Paris prosecutor's office after the publication in January of Vanessa Springora's autobiographical novel in which she describes the relationship under the influence that she maintained when she was a minor , with the writer.
“Three years after MeToo, after the public discussion provoked by the publication of the book" Le Consentement "by Vanessa Springora, a few months after the terrible Caesar ceremony, a few days after the appointment of a minister who is the subject of an instruction for rape and sexual harassment, the City of Paris cannot, must not, take a position hostile to feminist demands. Our political coherence depends on it, ”write the elected ecologists.
Paris
Matzneff affair: "Denial of mayor of Paris" ... Dozens of people demonstrate for the resignation of a deputy of Hidalgo
Culture
Matzneff case: Another alleged victim comes out of silence
- Anne Hidalgo
- Resignation
- Society
- Paris city hall
- Pedophilia
- Gabriel Matzneff