Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Macron’s Renaissance rocked by sex abuse claims

(Getty images)

Emmanuel Macron recently changed the name of his party from En Marche to Renaissance but so far all that has been revived are sordid accusations concerning some of his party members.

Last week, Jérôme Peyrat withdrew his candidature in the fourth district of the Dordogne from next month’s legislative elections after the media had made much of his conviction in 2020 for domestic violence against his wife. That Peyrat was nominated in the first place could be considered a stunning misjudgement, particularly from a president who famously declared in 2016 that he is ‘profoundly feminist’.

Peyrat resigned as one of Macron’s advisors in January 2020 after a preliminary investigation was launched into allegations of domestic violence against his partner. She spent two weeks off work recovering from bruises to her face, neck, shoulders, arm and wrist, and Peyrat was subsequently sentenced to a suspended fine of 3,000 euros (£2,500) by a court in Angoulême.

Macron possibly hoped that the public had forgotten – or forgiven – Peyrat for his offence, and his party chief, Stanislas Guerini, initially rallied to the defence of the candidate. He was, so he said in an interview last Wednesday, an ‘honest man’, and the case was more ‘complex’ than it appeared at first glance. Guerini added that he did not believe Peyrat ‘is capable of violence against women…if I had the belief or even the suspicion that we were dealing with someone who could be violent and guilty of violence against women, I would never have accepted this nomination’.

The scandal took the shine off Élisabeth Borne’s appointment last week as prime minister of France

Within hours, Peyrat’s political aspirations were no more and Guerini was expressing his regret on Twitter if his earlier words had ‘offended and hurt’. He also pledged his party’s commitment to ‘supporting the liberation of women’s voices on acts of violence, so that the judiciary can do its work’.

Opposition parties seized on the scandal, none more so than Jean-Luc Melenchon’s left-wing alliance (NUPE), who have themselves been embroiled in controversy this month.

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Gavin Mortimer
Written by
Gavin Mortimer

Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport.

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