Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, targeted by a rape complaint and whose appointment arouses the anger of feminists, considered that he was the " main victim " of what he calls " slander ".
To read also: Accusation of rape: Darmanin says he is "quiet like Baptist"
“ The victim in this story is me. It's me whose name they dirty. It is to me that we attribute behaviors that I have never had ”, declared the Minister of the Interior in an interview with Le Point , posted on Wednesday 5 August. “ It's hard to live with. But I have no right to complain, ”adds the former Minister of Public Accounts.
Accused in 2017
Gérald Darmanin was accused in 2017 of rape by a woman, Sophie Patterson-Spatz, who had requested him in 2009 when he was in charge of mission at the UMP (party became LR) to have a conviction overturned for blackmail and appeals malicious towards an ex-companion.
To read also: Gérald Darmanin: "We must stop the enslavement of a part of society"
According to her statements, Gerald Darmanin would have dangled his support for her and she would have felt compelled to " go to the pan ", as she explained to investigators. Gérald Darmanin admitted to having had a sexual relationship with this woman but, according to him, freely consented.
Filed without further action at first, the procedure was recently relaunched by the Paris Court of Appeal, which requested new investigations in early June. " I am at the disposal of justice ", repeats the minister in the interview, where he suggests that this affair be an " initiatory passage for those who disturb when one makes national policy ".