“Being the object of personal attacks, and desirous of preserving the institutions in which I work, I terminate my functions.
Since this laconic message posted on Twitter on Monday January 4, Olivier Duhamel has disappeared.
No more a word, no more an image of the renowned political scientist, accustomed to television sets.
But the man, yesterday so powerful and so talkative, will soon have to explain himself to the investigators of the minors' brigade.
Accused by his daughter-in-law Camille Kouchner in a book "La Familia grande" (more than 300,000 copies sold) of having sexually abused his twin brother, nicknamed "Victor", when he was a teenager, the constitutionalist has been forced for six weeks on a media diet.
A silent retreat that takes place mainly in the historic district of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, where we found it, a stone's throw from the Maison de la Mutualité, a Mecca of the French left.
“I wouldn't know what to say to him.
I'm not going to throw him: I'm thinking of you ... "
In the corridors of Europe 1 that he walked every Saturday or at Sciences-po Paris, of which he chaired the parent company (the National Federation of Political Sciences), it is said not to have seen him since the outbreak of the case.
And many are his former colleges, colleagues or friends, who refuse to see their name associated with his.
"I stopped all contact with him overnight," insists a renowned journalist, swearing that he was "not at all aware" of his past.
An ex-collaborator assures to have never spoken to him again since the affair.
"Anyway, I wouldn't know what to say to him."
I'm not going to throw him: I'm thinking of you ... "" He has not set foot again at Sciences-Po since January 4, "says an executive of the prestigious institute.
“Nobody really wants to see him again.
This whole story has had a very negative impact on the school, ”blows this manager, wishing for the return of“ serenity ”on rue Saint-Guillaume.
PODCAST. The Olivier Duhamel affair: Camille Kouchner's shocking book that breaks the taboo of incest
Having also given up the presidency of the Century or the direction of the review "Pouvoirs", Olivier Duhamel involved in his fall several personalities.
Because since the revelation of the scandal, it appears that many among the Parisian intelligentsia had heard of the accusations concerning him… and had kept the terrible secret.
The latest, the director of Sciences-po Paris, Frédéric Mion, entangled in his lies, resigned Tuesday, February 9.
Before him, Élisabeth Guigou, the former Socialist Minister of Justice, a time close to the couple Évelyne Pisier-Olivier Duhamel, had to give up the presidency of a commission on incest.
Upcoming hearing at the juvenile brigade
Among his long-time friends, lawyer Jean Veil, himself splashed by the case, is one of the very few to agree to speak.
“I do not excuse Olivier.
What he did is very serious and reprehensible… it is acquired.
But he remains my friend […] ", he confides to us, worried to know if he is" alone at home, in his small apartment.
"
Jean Veil, a friend of Olivier Duhamel, says he is worried about knowing that he is "alone at home".
/ LP / Olivier Corsan
Opened on January 5, the investigation for "rape and sexual assault by a person having authority over a minor of 15 years", aims to verify that the facts are well prescribed since 2003 and to "identify any other potential victim", according to the prosecutor of Paris.
After hearing first of all the three children born to the couple Bernard Kouchner and Évelyne Pisier (who married Olivier Duhamel and died in 2017), the police received this Friday the adopted son of the Pisier-Duhamel couple.
The latter indicated that he had not been abused by his adoptive father.
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“Victor”, now 45, filed a complaint against his stepfather after his hearing in January.
The next important step in the investigation will be the hearing of Olivier Duhamel.
Asked on Friday afternoon, her lawyer, Maître Frédérique Beaulieu, told us that she had "nothing to declare".
At some point, however, we will have to get out of silence.
