Environmental MP and feminist activist Sandrine Rousseau called Éric Coquerel, Insoumis MP targeted by a preliminary investigation for sexual assault and harassment, to take the time for the investigation “withdrawal” from the presidency of the Finance Committee. “He should not preside over the time of the investigation”, she declared on France 2, Friday July 15, while specifying that she does not “call on him to resign”.
“Once this investigation is carried out then he can resume his position as chairman of the Finance Committee, if there is nothing,” said the elected official. On the other hand, “if he is indicted, he will have to resign”. Also questioned on the set of RMC-BFMTV, the Insoumis Adrien Quatennens for his part judged that the opening of the investigation was only a “just follow-up” to Sophie Tissier’s complaint, that he “n ‘there are no new facts’ and that the facts at issue ‘do not warrant a withdrawal’.
Éric Coquerel, elected from Seine-Saint-Denis and president of the powerful Finance Committee at the National Assembly, is the subject of an investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office after the complaint of a left-wing activist, Sophie Tissier, who accuses him of facts that she said could “akin to a sexual assault”, which he disputes. During a dance party, at the end of a day of conferences, Éric Coquerel had “supported gestures, his hands were sticky and slipped on inappropriate parts of the body […], he touched my buttocks several times,” the complainant asserted.