The case mixes the cultural, political and feminist circles of the capital. Thursday evening, when he had just been reappointed to his post of Deputy Culture of the City of Paris, Christophe Girard finally announced his resignation, after being targeted by a demonstration organized by elected environmentalists and activists feminists. Protesters who accuse the elected official of proximity to the writer Gabriel Matzneff, currently targeted by an investigation for "rape of a minor".
What is the Matzneff affair?
The case was controversial at the very end of 2019, with the release of "Consent", a work by Vanessa Springora. In her pages, the writer, now aged 48, recounts her relationship with Gabriel Matzneff when she was only a 14-year-old teenager. He was, at the material time, 50 years old.
The release of the book shed light on a fact that was already known to the literary world since the 1970s: Gabriel Matzneff has long written books on his pedophile inclinations, whether they are young girls with whom he said he had relations in love, or boys he abused during trips abroad.
These accounts had not made waves until the release of "Consent". Because, after the “#MeToo” era, the outlook on gender-based and sexual violence has changed. Later, it was Francesca Gee, another of his victims, whose story is told in "Drunk on lost wine", who denounced similar facts in the press.
Since then, Gabriel Matzneff, who is the target of an investigation for “rape of minors” and is summoned to appear in 2021 before a criminal court for apologizing for the crime of aggravated rape, lives out of sight and the media. But questions arise about the involvement of those close to him and, more generally, of the indulgence granted to him by a literary milieu which has published and even praised his works.
What are the links between Girard and Matzneff?
In the 1980s, while Gabriel Matzneff had a relationship with Vanessa Springora, Christophe Girard, then secretary general of the Maison Yves Saint Laurent, is suspected of having financed two years of stays at the hotel for the writer, who there was taking his victim, according to a New York Times investigation. According to Vanessa Springora, these stays also allowed Matzneff to escape the visits of the police officers from the juvenile brigade in his apartment. The author himself says that these stays enabled him to recover from an eye operation.
Christophe Girard was also heard in March as part of the investigation for rape of a minor. In an interview with the Parisian, the ex-elected ensures to have had a "friendly relationship" with the writer, without considering him as a "friend". He admitted to "having taken care" of Gabriel Matzneff's hotel room at the request of Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent's companion. He also declares to have read only one of Matzneff's books, and therefore not to have been aware of his pedophile inclinations.
Christophe Girard would also have, in 2002, written a letter of recommendation allowing the writer to touch an allowance of the National Book Center (CNL).
What is Christophe Girard criticized for?
During a rally organized Thursday, elected environmentalists joined forces with feminist activists to demand the suspension of Christophe Girard, who was part of the list of Anne Hidalgo and was then deputy mayor of Paris in charge of Culture .
Political Newsletter
Every day, political news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
They felt that her presence in the Town Hall went against feminist values, because of her ties and supposed support for Gabriel Matzneff.
“Three years after MeToo, after the public discussion provoked by the publication of the work Le Consentement by Vanessa Springora, a few months after the terrible Caesar ceremony, a few days after the appointment of a minister subject to an investigation for rape and sexual harassment, the City of Paris cannot, must not, take a position hostile to feminist demands. Our political coherence depends on it, ”they wrote at the time.
Why did he quit?
After this gathering Thursday, Christophe Girard's lawyer, Delphine Meillet, denounced "a militant retribution seeking to replace the street court for the judicial court". In front of the Town Hall, "there were 20 people [...], but there were signs that were inadmissible, welcome to pedoland and pedos in common , a diversion of our campaign logo (Paris in common)", says Emmanuel Grégoire, Anne Hidalgo's first assistant.
"These slogans are defamatory against Christophe Girard in that they assimilate him to an accomplice in child crime," explains Me Meillet, recalling that his client "is not implicated in any judicial investigation" and has was “heard as a simple witness”.
Despite this, Christophe Girard finally chose to announce his resignation from the position of Deputy Culture Thursday evening. “In the general deleterious climate […] where our law and the Penal Code are trampled on, and even if today's demonstration against me has only brought together about twenty people, the first of my priorities is that Anne Hidalgo, brilliantly re-elected Mayor of Paris, can exercise her mandate serenely, ”he said in a statement.
"I am 64 years old, a fulfilling family life and many cultural, political and associative commitments, and I have no desire to spoil my life any longer and bother to justify myself permanently for something that does not does not exist, ”he continues. The chosen one remains however councilor of Paris of the XVIIIe arrondissement, where he was elected on June 28th.
What were the reactions within the town hall?
This affair in the affair created strong tensions between elected environmentalists and the head of the town hall. Environmentalists, who denounced his presence, welcomed this decision. "In view of the situation, which was becoming politically untenable, Christophe Girard took the best decision to protect the city and the executive," they reacted in a statement.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo, she praised a "courageous decision", but said "disgusted". “In which democracy do we live where the law is trampled on by rumor, confusion and suspicion? All my support for my friend Christophe Girard, ”she was annoyed on Twitter.
She also announced that she wanted to ask for an apology from elected environmentalists, who had displayed signs deemed insulting. She particularly denounces the attitude of two elected environmentalists at the origin of the rally, Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu and Alice Coffin. They "have encouraged and supported these behaviors, (and) thus place themselves outside the municipal majority", judges the mayor of Paris.
pic.twitter.com/e9RfKE8vbq
- Alice Coffin (@alicecoffin) July 24, 2020Tensions that were also felt this Friday at the Paris Council. Indignant by the "Republican salute" and the applause granted to Christophe Girard, Alice Coffin yelled "shame, shame, shame" in the middle of the assembly. “It's terrible,” she said on Twitter.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
