Didier Gailhaguet on his arrival at the headquarters of the FFSG, February 8, 2020. -
Philippe LOPEZ / AFP
Reluctantly resigning last February under media and ministerial pressure, Didier Gailhaguet still believes that he had nothing to be ashamed of.
Heard in connection with the indictment of Gilles Beyer, the former boss of the FFSG says he is "happy" to have been able to give his version of the facts to the investigators.
He is very angry with Roxana Maracineanu and claims 300,000 euros in compensation before the Administrative Court.
For those who are worried about the fate of Didier Gailhaguet, rest assured.
The great satan of French sport does not let himself be defeated.
Refugee in the Hérault, where he takes care of quietly rehabilitating the centenary house of the grandfather, a former shepherd of the region, the former president of the French federation of ice sports (FFSG) has a little more free time than before.
He was finally able to read Sarah Abitbol's live,
Un si long silence
, 200 pages which led to his downfall in a few days: "I read very sad things there, but also very disturbing things ..." sentence remains unresolved: Didier Gailhaguet kept the rest for the investigators.
Auditioned before Beyer's indictment
The degraded general was heard as a witness on January 7 in the Gilles Beyer case, finally indicted for acts of assault and sexual harassment after the opening of a judicial investigation last February.
A hearing that Didier Gailhaguet waited impatiently, tired of telling his version to people "who had decided that a culprit was needed".
The media, and especially Roxana Maracineanu, his sworn enemy, whom he likes to describe as "the worst minister of the Fifth Republic" whenever he has the opportunity.
We will come back to that.
To the police, Gailhaguet was able to repeat his version.
In short ?
It was he who had alerted the first for Beyer by asking for an investigation, and it was the ministry at the time which did not do its job by putting him back in the circuit.
“I was very happy to be able to express myself and it went very well from my point of view.
I said things that deserved to be said to people who listened and behaved like real professionals;
They told me that the investigation was continuing, and I sincerely hope that it will come to an end ”.
Gailhaguet probably speaks a little for him too.
It's been six months since he attacked the Ministry of Sports, claiming 300,000 euros in compensation and moral damage for having made the ideal scapegoat in the scandal of sexual violence that shook skating a year ago.
On the front page of "20 Minutes" this Wednesday #presse #medias #RevueDePresse #ALaUne #Gailhaguet #Patinage pic.twitter.com/OVrLuSK3i4
- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) February 4, 2020
"The minister had decided that a culprit was needed"
The ministry has not bitten, obviously, and all these beautiful people must find themselves before the administrative court before the end of 2021, if the Covid does not extend the time for the judicial response even further.
"It's not a question of money, but a question of honor, I am far from perfect, I have undoubtedly made mistakes, but on this file I think that the State has a lot of things to be ashamed of.
What happened to me is a scandal and I am determined to prove it "It is almost a personal vendetta against Roxana Maracineanu, whom he is astonished to see still in office:" It is she who should have resigned by report to the faults of his ministry in this matter, not me!
"
The man has thick leather, his ability to get up completely still quivers yesterday's enemies, but he concedes having pitched for a moment: "What fell on me is violent all the same."
One evening in February, I ran into a guy twice my size who pulled out a knife and said "I'm going to screw you up, you dirty rapist."
If I hadn't had the good reflex of a rugby player's son by kicking him where it should be… What happened to these girls that I know for the most part is awful, but I'm clean in this case.
You will never see my name in stories of little girls or little boys ”.
A last attempt to influence the life of the Federation
The wave to the soul only lasted a while, that said.
Didier Gailhaguet quickly regained his confidence as an insatiable conqueror at the end of the summer, when we had to roar one last time to shake the fragile (re) foundations of the FFSG.
The new governance was preparing to bury it definitively in the sixth basement by shifting the limitation on the number of presidential terms into the tail wagon of the new statutes.
So the former great organizer of the Federation took out his phone, whose number has not changed, to go around the supports.
He also cracked an email more threatening than a formal notice of taxes.
Its targets, out of order: the new DTN which knows nothing about skating, the price of the new decoration of the Fédé offices, that of the change of logo, and especially the incompetence of the lawyer - too expensive, he too - consulted by Nathalie Péchalat to rewrite the texts.
A warning shot in the void, since a very large majority votes in favor.
We can then imagine the distress of the old Marshal of the Empire in retirement who realizes that the battle is lost for good.
He swears the opposite: “There is no death of a man, the federation does not belong to anyone.
I simply considered that it had worked very well with the old statutes and that there were other priorities, but without ever showing the desire for any return to governance ”.
We can never be too careful though.
“You know, Natalie, I know her well, she has qualities.
The only thing I can blame him for is having decided that our federation is only an annex of the Sports Ministries ”.
Maracineanu, again and again.
Always present at CNOSF meetings
Sworn, however, Didier Gailhaguet is not bitter.
He continues to follow the competitions here and there, and enjoys advising many skaters who continue to seek him, he says.
"Even my biggest enemies find it hard to question my true passion for all these sports."
He also continues to attend meetings of the CNOSF, from which he refused to resign during the storm.
In this regard, he lets us know that he had dealt with Denis Masseglia to organize his famous defense press conference in the premises of the Olympic committee, last February.
However, it had ended at sixty in a riquiqui room of the FFSG, in the middle of sleeping Covid.
"Do you know on whose orders?"
".
We have a little idea, yes.
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