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"Ministry of rape" , "Ruled by the culture of rape" or "A rapist in Interior", read the posters that the group Collages Féminicides Paris posted this week on various facades of the French capital to protest the appointment on Monday of Gérald Darmanin as Minister of Interior.
Darmanin, who is being investigated by the French Justice for alleged violation, denies the allegations. "I have the right to the presumption of innocence," the minister recalled this Thursday in an interview with the RTL television network.
The 37-year-old Interior Minister, however, was "at the disposal of the judges", despite the fact that, according to him, he had "obviously nothing" to reproach himself with.
"I simply find that there have been three judicial decisions: two preliminary investigations dismissed and a dismissal by two investigating judges. There have been three decisions of the justice system in three years that have been favorable to me ," recalled Darmanin, who before being appointed Minister of Interior was responsible for the Treasury.
"It is a situation that is not easy to live for those who are wrongly accused. But I walk with my head held high," added the head of the Interior. Darmanin has so far been neither tried nor convicted in that case .
New French Prime Minister Jean Castex said Wednesday that he takes full responsibility for Darmanin's appointment as interior minister. "He, like everyone, has the right to the presumption of innocence," Castex also noted.
Darmanin's promotion to interior minister has surprised many in France by the fact that he is under investigation in a case of alleged rape.
For the Elysee Palace, the open investigation against Darmanin "is not an obstacle" to his appointment as interior minister, according to the French press.
OUTRAGE AMONG THE FRENCH FEMINISTS
French feminists have been outraged at her rise in the middle of the #MeToo era. They recall that President Emmanuel Macron decided in 2017 to make gender equality and the fight against violence against women the great cause of his presidency.
"Darmamin, resignation" and "Darmanin, rapist," a group of feminist activists shouted Tuesday in Paris during a protest against his appointment, coinciding with the handover ceremony at the ministry.
Feminist groups wonder what message the Castex government wants to send to women victims of rape, sexual abuse or domestic violence with the appointment of an alleged rapist to the head of the ministry that is in charge of the police, who must protect them.
Ségolène Royal, a former socialist candidate for the 2006 presidential election, considered this rape complaint "a problem" for her appointment as minister.
"To find out if it is a problem or not, you have to ask yourself a question: Would a judicial investigation against a minister for fictitious employment have prevented his nomination? It is evident. Therefore, a violation is visibly less serious", lamented Royal, ex partner of President François Hollande, on the television channel RMC.
AN ALLEGED VIOLATION IN 2009
The French justice system reopened on June 11 an investigation against Darmanin for an alleged crime of rape that supposedly occurred 11 years ago, at the beginning of his political career.
France's Sophie Patterson-Spatz, 46, accused Darmanin in 2017 of rape, sexual harassment and breach of trust . The events allegedly occurred in 2009 when Darmanin worked in the legal affairs service of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the party of Nicolas Sarkozy.
The woman contacted Darmanin because she wanted him to help her set aside a 2004 conviction for blackmail and malicious calls to her former partner. According to her, the minister would have agreed to help her in exchange for having sex with him . Darmanin, who sued the woman for slander after she accused him of rape, maintains that the relationship was consensual and that she took the initiative.
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