Legislative: Taha Bouhafs was targeted by an internal LFI investigation for sexual violence when he withdrew his candidacy


Sexual violencecase

After a report sent to the follow-up cell against gender-based and sexual violence at LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party decided to withdraw his investiture from the journalist and activist. Clémentine Autain affirms this Wednesday evening that there would have been other testimonies from women.

Tuesday, May 10, 1:33 a.m., Taha Bouhafs publishes a press release on his social networks. In a few lines, the journalist and activist announces that he is withdrawing his candidacy for the legislative elections in the 14th district of the Rhône. He explains that he collects “an unprecedented storm of attacks”. “I underestimated how powerful this system is when it wants to grind you down. I would have liked to hold on, I would have liked to make you proud. All of you who, like me, “are nothing””, writes Bouhafs in his nocturnal press release.

According to Mediapart and BFM, this is another reason that forced the reporter to throw in the towel: a report sent to the monitoring unit against sexist and sexual violence, an internal body within La France insoumise. In a press release issued on the afternoon of Wednesday May 11, after the publication of the investigation by Mediapart, the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon gives a little more explanation.

The candidate was notified “that because of the seriousness of the alleged facts, as a precautionary principle, and in accordance with the texts defining the principles of the movement, insubordinate France could be led not to invest it, can we read. After this confrontation and even before the end of our internal procedure, Taha Bouhafs made the choice to renounce his nomination for the legislative elections.

“Sufficiently serious and substantiated alert”

Back to the facts told by Mediapart : on the evening of the Nupes convention, where a large part of the candidates for the ballot on June 12 and 19 were presented in Aubervilliers on Saturday, a detailed testimony concerning Taha Bouhafs for alleged acts of sexual violence was sent to the LFI body specializing in gender-based and sexual violence. The testimony is that of a “ex-girlfriend”.

“An interview was then organized, and the alert was deemed sufficiently serious and substantiated for the information to go up to a small leading group”, says the investigative media, which does not give exactly the details of the rebellious personalities having been put in the loop, but on Monday, Bouhafs was received by the deputies Clémentine Autain and Mathilde Panot. The first reacted in an interview with the show outdoors, of Mediapart, broadcast this Wednesday evening. “The situation that we have had to deal with for several days is very tough. Hard, because the facts are very violent, but also because humanly, it involves a lot of things that are not easy to manage. She tells : “We received a report which was sent on Friday evening and which the cell which is responsible for violence against women within La France insoumise became aware of on Saturday. And immediately, we took seriously this testimony which was sent to us stipulating a sexual assault and moreover we had had other contacts, we were alerted by other women who have not yet sent a report but whose we have the testimony in knowledge already.”

Tuesday morning, Bouhafs had been supported by a panel of left-wing leaders, from the ecologist David Cormand to the boss of LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who denounced a “relentless pack” and explained that he blamed himself for “not having been able to comfort him as much as necessary”. Was the Nupes leader then informed of the details of the file by his comrades? The tenor of his Tuesday tweet suggests not.

In a new tweet posted this Wednesday at 4 p.m., Jean-Luc Mélenchon affirms “to learn the accusations against Taha Bouhafs” following the revelations of BFM and Mediapart. “The voice of women must be taken seriously. I am counting on the LFI ad hoc commission to establish the truth. It does not exempt the racists who harassed him,” he writes. Way not to back down and operate a form of intersectional synthesis between anti-racism and feminism within his movement.

Near MediapartTaha Bouhafs explains the underlying reasons for his withdrawal. “I was already exhausted, reporting was the last straw that led me to withdraw,” he said. He states that the case “is part of the calumnies evoked in [son] communicated”. And continues: “I consider that anyone who is the subject of an accusation must withdraw from public life pending the verification of this word. What I decided to do. I am not aware of any other alerts.”

As soon as the survey is published Mediapart, former NPA candidate Philippe Poutou, who supported Bouhafs when he withdrew, stressed that he was not “no compromise”. “We believe the victims who dare to make these facts public. We assure them of our unconditional support.”he wrote on Twitter.

A feminist activist and committed alongside LFI, Caroline De Haas, confirmed to the Parisian that she had made a report at the beginning of May concerning “aggressive private messages towards a member of the voluntary sectoron the one hand and “a written, precise and detailed testimony on psychological violence and also acts of rape” the other.

Update at 5:10 p.m. with details from “Parisien” and at 9:44 p.m. with the reaction of Clémentine Autain.





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