INTERVIEW
"I am the subject of a slander", denounces Gérald Darmanin. Appointed despite the rape complaint of which he is the object and target of sharp criticisms, the new Minister of the Interior castigated the "manhunt" which he estimates to be the subject, Thursday morning on Europe 1. " In the past three years, there have been three court decisions, (...) which have concluded that there has been a total absence of an offense, "he said. "For political reasons, we are trying to weaken the government of the President of the Republic."
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Gérald Darmanin was accused in 2017 of rape by a woman, Sophie Patterson-Spatz, who requested it in 2009, when he was project manager in the legal affairs department of the UMP (party which became LR), in an attempt to to quash a 2004 conviction for blackmail and malicious calls against an ex-boyfriend. According to his statements, Gérald Darmanin would have dangled her support, and she would have felt compelled to "go to the pan", as she explained to the investigators. The Minister of the Interior admitted having had sexual intercourse with this woman, but according to him, freely consented.
>> READ ALSO - Darmanin case: after three years of judicial developments, where is the investigation?
Initially closed without further action, the procedure was relaunched by the Paris Court of Appeal, which asked for new investigations at the start of June.