The National Assembly voted unanimously on Monday for a bill aimed at creating universal emergency financial assistance for victims of domestic violence.

The aid scale, modulated according to needs, must be specified by decree.

The objective is to allow victims to seek shelter as quickly as possible, without financial dependence.

The deputies took up and modified a proposal by the centrist senator Valérie Létard, also voted unanimously by the upper house in October at first reading.

Deputies and senators should agree without difficulty on a final text for final adoption in the coming weeks, then promulgation within a maximum of nine months.

A donation, not a loan

With this help, “the first departure” from the home should no longer be “a false start”, underlined Minister Isabelle Rome, responsible for gender equality.

Because currently, victims under "grip or financially dependent sometimes have no other choice but to return to square one, in this camera with their attackers", she lamented.

The deputies supported a government amendment to be able to pay this aid in the form of a donation and not just an interest-free loan, as the Senate had voted.

This financial support will be conditional on a protection order, the filing of a complaint or a report addressed to the public prosecutor.

At least part of it must be paid within three days.

When the aid is granted in the form of a loan, its reimbursement will be the responsibility of the person found guilty of violence if necessary, with an additional penalty of “obligation to reimburse”.

Against the advice of the government, the Assembly adopted an amendment by the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau to create a multi-annual law on funding for the fight against violence against women.

His fate is however uncertain during the continuation of the parliamentary shuttle.

Unanimous support

Inspired by an experiment in the Nord department, the bill received unanimous support.

The deputies of the National Rally had initially tried to take it up in their parliamentary niche, a day dedicated to their texts on January 12.

But the Conference of Presidents of the Assembly, which brings together President of the Assembly, leaders of political groups and committees in particular, decided to include this transpartisan subject during an "Assembly week", which began this Monday.

The RN did not oppose it.

An RN deputy, Emmanuel Taché de la Pagerie was co-rapporteur, with the elected representative of the independent group Liot Béatrice Descamps.

The Ministry of the Interior has identified 207,743 victims of domestic violence in France in 2021, mainly women.

122 were killed by their spouse or ex-spouse that same year, according to the ministry.

Paris

Greater Paris: Domestic violence increases by 12% at the end of 2022

Company

Femicide: "There is often a relentlessness of the murderer on the body of his victim"

  • Company

  • National Assembly

  • Violence against women

  • Domestic violence

  • Femicide

  • Vote

  • Law