Hulot case: the spokesperson for Yannick Jadot, Matthieu Orphelin, put "in withdrawal"

Europe 1 with AFP 6:12 am, November 28, 2021

Matthieu Orphelin, spokesperson for environmental candidate for the presidential election Yannick Jadot and close to former minister Nicolas Hulot accused of rape and sexual assault, was "withdrawn from his responsibilities", campaign director Mounir Satouri announced on Saturday to AFP.

"It was decided to withdraw Matthieu Orphelin from his responsibilities as spokesperson in the environmental presidential campaign. The serenity necessary for the exercise of his functions is no longer possible following the revelations of

", explained Mounir Satouri in a press release, referring to the new charges against Nicolas Hulot.

The new testimonies against Nicolas Hulot feed "full of questions for a few days on the state of the reality of what the relatives" of the ex-host and ex-minister, then specified Mounir Satouri.

This is why it was considered "opportune to release him from this responsibility (of spokesperson, editor's note) and leave him free of his answers and his communication," he said.

He said he was "flabbergasted" by the testimonies

Matthieu Orphelin had said, in a press release Friday, "stunned by the testimonies heard" in the report of

the day before and called for "to strengthen our collective vigilance and our actions in the face of behavior of violence against women".

On the same day, a former EELV activist, Pauline Lavaud, said on BFMTV that she had been excluded from Nicolas Hulot's campaign for the party's internal primary in 2011 because she "excited him too much".

Following this testimony, the feminist outfit collective asked EELV for accounts via Twitter on "the identity of the people who dismissed Pauline Lavaud" and Matthieu Orphelin to find out if he "ignored" this.

"Yannick Jadot reaffirms his full support for the victims and underlines the extraordinary courage of the women who testified," said the campaign manager in his press release.

At least six women implicate Hulot

The Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation on Friday after the broadcast of a resounding investigation by France 2 in which several women accuse Nicolas Hulot of rape and sexual assault, which he fiercely denies.

At least six women, including a minor at the time of the facts, implicate Nicolas Hulot who has long been one of the favorite personalities of the French.

In the 62-minute report broadcast on Thursday evening on the Special Envoy, three of them testify, including two with their faces uncovered.