While the former president of the group Les Républicains in the National Assembly was recently invested Minister of Solidarity, Autonomy and Persons with Disabilities by the presidential majority, two accusations of rape against Damien Abad have resurfaced.
In a letter sent on May 13 to the Observatory of sexist and sexual violence in politics, a young woman named Chloé* shares the « acts of rape concerning Damien Abad » that she allegedly suffered in 2010. She also recalls the existence of a complaint filed in 2017 by another woman, and dismissed. A look back at these accusations that have agitated the executive since the publication of a « Mediapart » investigation on Saturday May 21.
The young woman, whose testimony « Mediapart » collected, said she met the MEP and regional councilor of Rhône-Alpes on August 7, 2010. The two were then invited to a wedding of mutual friends and spent the evening discussing politics. . They decide to keep in touch on Facebook, especially for professional reasons – at least on Chloé’s side.
Very quickly, Damien Abad would have been « heavy » and insistent, regularly offering Chloé to have a drink with her in Paris, while the latter would have told him that she did not « want to[t]not go out with him. In the fall of 2010, the two finally meet in a Parisian restaurant, then continue their evening in a bar in the 9th arrondissement of the capital. Damien Abad would have served a glass of champagne to Chloé, who then has no more memories of the evening. Until the next day, when the young woman explains that she woke up « in her underwear », « in a hotel room near the bar », « in a state of shock and deep disgust » and with the feeling of having was drugged by the politician.
Subsequently, her relatives explain that they found her changed. After leaving the hotel room in a hurry, without confronting Damien Abad, she ended up spending a second evening with him on February 26, 2011 to, she said, « convince herself, very naively, that the hotel episode did not exist”. She claims to have definitely stopped seeing him afterwards, and to have tried to bury this story in her, even if the feeling of having been raped persists.
But it is « by seeing that he [Damien Abad, ndlr] could become a minister” that Chloé would have finally decided to make this affair public, as evidenced by her friend Étienne to “Mediapart”. In April 2020, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, the young woman relates the facts that she would have suffered in a tweet. More recently, on April 27, she decided to confront Damien Abad in a long message where she accused him of having raped and “destroyed” women; to which the current minister responds with two question marks.
In her letter to the Observatory of gender-based and sexual violence in politics, Chloé recalls the existence of another rape complaint filed in 2017 against Damien Abad. The case, which dates back to 2011, this time concerns another woman, Margaux, who describes to « Mediapart » a sexual relationship marked « with disrespect, injunction and insistence ».
The young woman would have met Damien Abad during a political meeting in 2009 when she was 22 years old and was vice-president of the Young Democrats in Paris. The latter was then a European deputy and president of the young people of the New Centre. A few months later, in April 2010, the MEP reportedly « started to [la] flirt by SMS”, as she explains to the investigators.
Very early on, Damien Abad would have been « very insistent » with Margaux, offering her in fifteen messages to come and spend the evening with him, which she would have systematically refused, preferring to get to know each other over a coffee or a dinner at Paris. In other exchanges, the chosen one would have offered her « something at 3 », and insisted five times to obtain a photo of her « with[s]has chest and[s]headed « .
On January 12, 2011, passing through Paris, Damien Abad would have offered her a dinner, which she ended up accepting. The deputy would have claimed by SMS that the young woman dresses in « beautiful dress », « with a neckline ».
During the evening, Damien Abad would have forced her to drink champagne, although she would have told him many times that she drank little. The two reportedly ended up having consensual sex in the evening. Subsequently, Margaux said that she had been the victim of non-consensual anal penetration that she would have refused “several times”. » He continued[…]. I was dazed that he couldn’t take my refusal into account,” she explains. “I told him he saw himself in a porn movie. He told me to be nice and he continued. “Damien Abad would then have demanded a blowjob.
Read also >> Consent, and after?
The alleged victim thinks several times to file a complaint, going so far as to call the “SOS rape” telephone line. It was not until February 20, 2012 that she testified at the police station, but asked for « a time for reflection » before filing a complaint. In the absence of a response from him in the following weeks, the case is closed without further action. In 2017, Damien Abad became spokesperson for François Fillon, which prompted Margaux, on March 7 of the same year, to file a complaint.
An investigation is opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office and the accused is heard on the accusations of non-consensual anal penetration, which he denies en bloc. No medical expert is mandated and neither the personal entourage nor the professional entourage of the MP are questioned. The case is finally dismissed.
The leaders of LREM claim not to have been aware of the message from the Observatory of which they were nevertheless recipients. Christophe Castaner, president of the group in the National Assembly and former Minister of the Interior, assures « Mediapart » that he has not received it, while Stanislas Guerini, recently appointed Minister of Transformation and the Public Service, explains not not having consulted his mailbox between May 16 and May 21 in the morning. Bérangère Couillard, deputy of the majority to whom the message was transferred, did not wish to respond to requests from « Mediapart ».
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne assures that she was « not aware » of the first complaint of 2017. She says that she « discovered the Mediapart article[samedi 21 mai]“, but not to have” more elements than the fact that the case was dismissed without further action “. Said complaint had however been revealed in the people magazine « Closer » on March 23, 2017, when Damien Abad was spokesperson for the candidate of the LR presidential candidate, François Fillon.
Questioned by « Mediapart », Damien Abad refutes all the elements put forward by Chloé and Margaux, citing « false and slanderous accusations » and « an obvious attempt to destabilize at a key moment in [son] political career”. He nevertheless admits having been able to send a few SMS “sometimes intimate, sometimes late” having been able to “unintentionally offend certain people”.
*at his request to “Mediapart”, the first name has been changed
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