The president of the People's Republican Union François Asselineau was reelected hands down at the head of the sovereignist party on Saturday during a virtual congress convened after accusations and an investigation for "sexual harassment" and "sexual assault".
The list of the head of the UPR, former presidential candidate - 0.92% of the vote in 2017 - and in favor of France leaving the European Union and NATO (Frexit), obtained the absolute majority with 77.7% of the votes cast, according to the results of the poll published by the party on its site.
A unique sling
The founder of the UPR in 2007 faced for the first time two adversaries, including the leader of opponents Philippe Conte who demanded his departure because of the accusations against Mr. Asselineau, and collected 17.3% of the votes. A third list obtained 5%. "Democracy has spoken," rejoiced with AFP Mr. Asselineau, who would have preferred that "the debates on the strategy of the movement take place in a rational and non-aggressive way".
He also said he was "very confident" about the rest of the legal proceedings concerning him. Philippe Conte announced to AFP that he was going to resign from the party as well as "many executives" according to him, eager to join the movement around the review "Front populaire" by essayist Michel Onfray.
Two complaints and one investigation
François Asselineau had convened this congress urgently after the dissemination in April, in the press and on social networks, of accusations of alleged sexual harassment against him.
Two complaints were filed by two alleged victims and former employees of the UPR, one in Allier, the other in Paris, and a former manager made a report to the public prosecutor, according to an internal source in the party, confirming information from Liberation , immediately qualified as “slanders” by François Asselineau on his Facebook account.
The Paris public prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation on May 15 of the heads of "sexual harassment" and "sexual assault", entrusted to the Brigade for the Suppression of Crime against the Person.
Pending the indictment
Forty executives of the movement had called for the resignation of François Asselineau in a letter dated April 18 and made public by Le Figaro . They referred to "the existence of special and more than insistent relationships on the part" of François Asselineau with regard to UPR employees, "a source of serious psychological suffering".
After trying in vain to obtain an interim order for the cancellation of the congress, 85 party activists had demanded on July 3 that François Asselineau be "withdrawn" from his duties during legal proceedings. "As an indictment becomes more and more probable, to organize in a hurry a congress resembles a flight in front to advance justice", maintained these militants.
The slingers also denounce "recurring problems never resolved internal communication, poor management, which crushes people and curbs initiatives". They also evoke "numerous departures" of activists, whose number made public does not correspond to "the reality of the membership file". The UPR claims 39,000 activists, half as many according to opponents.
On Saturday, 12,718 UPR activists had registered to vote.
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- Sexual harassment
- Sexual assault
- François Asselineau