“The information published in Libé confirms the need to think about the best way to deal with this particular case”, explained a source close to the management to AFP, confirming information from BFMTV.

“It is normal that the information in this article is taken into account and treated politically,” added another EELV official.

The leadership of the party is meeting this weekend, for the holding behind closed doors - and already planned - of its federal council, responsible for deciding on the calendar of the next congress, which should take place in December.

But the party has been experiencing internal turmoil since the resignation Monday of its national secretary Julien Bayou, to be able to defend itself against accusations of psychological violence against his ex-companion, without complaint or judicial investigation.

On Friday, an article in Liberation accentuated the uneasiness, revealing that for three years, Julien Bayou had been living under pressure from an informal feminist collective which reproached him for his conduct and investigated his relations with women, going so far as to question his former companions.

But "the global context invites us to talk to each other, Libé or not", specifies another source.

"We are working on joint communication to answer questions that arise," another party official told AFP.

For another executive, "it is the responsibility of the Executive Office to find the right path and it is therefore normal that he speaks about it with the unit" of internal listening to the party, whose functioning has also been criticized.

According to Liberation, one of the female members of this cell responsible for processing reports of sexual and gender-based violence in the party is also part of the informal group that targeted the private life of Julien Bayou.

"It is the question of procedures in general and the collective ability to establish them in a stable, reliable, sustainable, efficient way", which is at the heart of the discussions, for another manager.

"The cell is doing what it can. We are dealing with subjects on which there are no nomenclatures or established procedures", but "we cannot reduce a victorious strategy of struggle to individual initiatives, sometimes approximate," he added.

In a tweet, the former environmentalist presidential candidate, Eva Joly, also reacted to the article on Friday: "I have been criticized a lot for being too radical, but the end does not justify the means. These actions outside of any framework serve the cause they are supposed to advance and are dangerous for those very ones whom one claims to protect".

© 2022 AFP