The director of Sciences Po, Frédéric Mion, admitted to Le Monde that he had been alerted in 2019 to charges of incest targeting Olivier Duhamel, former president of the body that oversees the Parisian institute for political studies.
Read also: The shock wave of the Duhamel affair
On Monday, when these accusations were revealed, the director of Sciences Po Paris said he was "
in shock
".
He then expressed his "
amazement
" by discovering "
through press articles, very serious facts alleged against the former president of the National Foundation for Political Science
".
However, according to information from Le Monde, Mr. Mion had been aware of the charges of incest for two years already.
In 2019, the former socialist Minister of Culture, Aurélie Filippetti, teacher at Sciences Po Paris, learned from two relatives of Olivier Duhamel that the latter, honorary professor of Sciences Po, was accused of sexual abuse of his stepson at the end of the 1980s, reports the daily.
She then decides to inform Frédéric Mion.
"
I will find Jean Veil at his firm, a lawyer in which Olivier Duhamel is a partner,
" Mr. Mion told Le Monde on Wednesday evening.
“
He assures me that these are just rumors.
I let myself be fooled,
”he added.
"
It's true, I did not react after being contacted by this teacher
", also agreed the director of Sciences Po, claiming to have "
lacked discernment
" and saying "
ready to suffer the consequences
".
The director of Sciences Po "
wished to be transparent
", "
he assumes the fact of having been aware of these rumors
", we said in his entourage.
He was "
convinced that they were unfounded
".
Thursday morning, a dozen students settled in front of the Institute on rue Saint-Guillaume to demand his resignation.
They were only a handful at the end of the morning according to AFP, but had to take turns all day.
In his last year of Sciences Po, Luka who called for this rally on Facebook is offended that Mr. Mion has "
lied
" to his students.
“
More generally, we want to denounce a climate of omerta that plagues our school, and generalized impunity in the face of gender-based and sexual violence
,” he explains.
Asked about a possible resignation of Frédéric Mion, his entourage told AFP that "
for the moment he is working to ensure the continuity of the establishment
".
