Jean-Luc Mélenchon is "grilled" with feminists

The Adrien Quatennens affair has not finished splashing rebellious France, and in the front line, its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

For four members of the "Relève féministe", a collective formed spontaneously with the Quatennens affair and which contributed to the withdrawal of Julien Bayou from the co-presidency of the green deputies, the former deputy is "grilled" "and can no longer represent feminists”.

It is a “collective fed up” shared by hundreds of Internet users on Sunday in the face of tweets of support for Adrien Quatennens by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and certain rebellious people, after his confession to domestic violence.

The feminist activist and environmental municipal councilor of the city of Paris, Alice Cofin, considers on RTL that the leader LFI, but also the rest of the political class, "does not understand anything about feminist issues".

“It's absolutely catastrophic, it's not new at all.

These issues of combating gender-based and sexual violence are a complete blind spot for the political class as a whole,” she added.

“Culture of impunity”

The rebellious leader denounced "police malice, media voyeurism, social networks" and praised the "dignity" and "courage" of Adrien Quatennens, repeating to him his "confidence" and his "affection".

Quickly, "women of all persuasions, trans, racialized, lesbians, from overseas, cardholders and non-cardholders in parties" come together in the "Relève féministe", because all are "fed up with this culture impunity and this omerta”, reports Sirine Sehil, 25, activist with “We all” and Generations, the movement founded by Benoît Hamon.

They launch raids on social networks to challenge the parties and demand an exemplary sanction for the aggressors, even those who support them.

Less than 24 hours later, one of these questions is relayed to the EELV deputy Sandrine Rousseau in the program "C à vous" on France 5. This is the start of a second affair, which will lead the group on Tuesday green deputies to suspend Julien Bayou from his duties as president.

"Social networks are our only way to express ourselves because otherwise no one listens to us," explains Axele Gibert, 26, editor of the gender equality program for Yannick Jadot's presidential campaign.

“Protected” abusers

But they do not stop there and publish a column in

where they express their indignation, in particular vis-à-vis the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

"His tweet stunned me, I said to myself: 'man defends man'.

He knows as the third presidential candidate what influence he has in this country, he knew what he was doing, ”says Sirine Sehil indignantly.

Moreover, the former president of the LFI group in the National Assembly persisted and signed on Thursday, declaring, questioned by the press on his tweets, that he "always weighed his words".

The problem is not so much the management of the Quatennens affair by LFI as their inability to contradict the words of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

We were at the parliamentary days of the group ⬇ # Daily pic.twitter.com/CImbmUI4T5

– Daily (@Qofficiel) September 22, 2022

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For Lou Toussaint, 23, former LFI candidate in the 7th constituency of Bas-Rhin in the June legislative elections, "this tweet should never have been written and LFI should have said it" and not, "especially men" , take refuge in “gazelle modesty” - an expression dear to Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“For me he is grilled, he will probably not stand again but I do not see how he can represent feminists”, slips Sirine Sehil, who has “a little bitter taste” to have voted for him in April.

The “Relève” wants to also question the right: “Speech is freed more easily on the left”, estimates Sirine Sehil.

For Lou Toussaint, "there are no more aggressors on the left, but on the right they are systematically protected, sometimes up to the highest levels of government".

If Sirine Sehil assures that they "do not want to replace the prosecutor", Majlinda Audars threatens, while it is "the women who hold the activism" of the base: "One day, we will all leave" political parties.

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• Adrien Quatennens

• Jean-Luc Melenchon

• Sandrine Rousseau

• Julien Bayou

• Feminism

• Violence against women

• Domestic violence

• La France Insoumise (LFI)