Christophe Girard, Culture Assistant to the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo (PS), told AFP that he had decided to resign Thursday, after attacks by elected environmentalists following his hearing in March in the investigation "for rape of 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.
Anne Hidalgo "takes note" and "renews her friendship"
"In the general deleterious climate where our Law and the Penal Code are trampled on, and even if today's demonstration against me has brought together only twenty people, the first of my priorities is that Anne Hidalgo, brilliantly re-elected Mayor of Paris, can exercise his mandate serenely, "writes Christophe Girard. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, "takes note of this resignation", "welcomes this courageous decision" and "renews his friendship", according to his entourage questioned by AFP.
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 at the town hall of Paris", "Girard Resignation", "Anne you're serious?" : armed with signs and slogans, dozens of activists and elected officials demonstrated under the windows of the Hôtel de Ville, where the first Paris council of the term of office was held.
Financial support for Gabriel Matzneff
"It is not enough to have a clean criminal record to be deputy mayor of Paris, you also need ethical and moral qualities, 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 the writer Gabriel Matzneff in the 1980s, according to several accounts. The writer is targeted by an investigation for "rape of minors" opened by the Paris prosecutor's office after the publication in January of the autobiographical novel by Vanessa Springora 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 subject to an investigation for rape and sexual harassment, the City of Paris cannot, must not, take a position hostile to feminist demands. Our political coherence is at stake, "write the elected environmentalists.