Damien Abad targeted by a report from the Observatory of gender-based and sexual violence in politics

Less than forty-eight hours later, the entry into government of the new Minister of Solidarity Damien Abad is already tainted. In an investigation published on Saturday May 21, Mediapart reveals the existence of a complaint for rape filed in 2017 against the former president of the group Les Républicains (LR) and of a report for similar facts sent a few days before his entry. to the government at LREM and its former party by the Observatory of sexist and sexual violence in politics.

Requested by Mediapart, Damien Abad formally contests the facts of which he is accused and which go back to 2010 and 2011. “If I could have adventures, I want to affirm that they have always been granted”, he indicated to the site of investigation, recalling also that the complaint filed in 2017 had been dismissed by the prosecution “on the grounds that the offense does not appear to be sufficiently constituted or characterized, the investigation having not made it possible to gather sufficient evidence” .

Facts committed in 2010 and 2011

The two women who accuse the former spokesperson for François Fillon and who confided in Mediapart do not know each other. The first, aged 41, reports a dinner with the chosen one in October 2010 after which she woke up in a hotel room, in her underwear, in the company of Damien Abad. The young woman explains that she had no memory of the course of this evening after drinking a single glass of champagne. These facts, reported by the Observatory of gender-based and sexual violence in politics created last February, were also brought to the attention of the public prosecutor. Christophe Castaner, president of the LREM group in the National Assembly, told Mediapart that he too had sent these elements to the prosecutor after being requested by the site and “advises the victim to file a complaint immediately”.

A second young woman, a 35-year-old centrist activist, explains that she had a sexual relationship with the former MEP in January 2011 after months of insistent exchanges. She indicates that she has undergone non-consensual anal penetration despite her “affirmed” and repeated refusal. His complaint, filed in 2017, justified the opening of an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office. “After a confrontation in front of the police, the procedure was dismissed, in December 2017, on the grounds of an insufficiently characterized offense”, writes Mediapart.

Despite our alerts, Damien Abad implicated in rape has been appointed to the government. #redesign

Thoughts and support for the victims.

A survey of @marineturchi for @Mediapart ????https://t.co/KHthG4Fnir pic.twitter.com/eL2qmXPwXa

— Observatory of GBV in politics (@Obs_vssPol) May 21, 2022

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Damien Abad’s answer

In a press release issued this Sunday and consulted by 20 minutesthe new Minister of Solidarity “contests with the greatest force these accusations of sexual violence” and ensures that “these accusations relate to acts or gestures which are quite simply impossible for me because of my disability”.

Suffering from a congenital disease, the former MEP explains that he remained discreet about the limits he imposes on him in his “movements” and “daily gestures”. “I am forced today to specify that, in my situation, the sexual act can only take place with the assistance and the benevolence of my partner (…) without the consent and the full and complete participation of the other , nothing is possible”, he defends himself.