Questioned earlier this week on the Darmanin affair, the minister camped on the official line of government positions and defended this controversial appointment.
After the cabinet reshuffle in early July 2020, Marlène Schiappa became the Minister responsible for Citizenship to the Minister of the Interior. This post comes after that of Secretary of State for Equality between Women and Men, where she defended in particular the law against street harassment, and actions taken by the government to implement the “great cause of the quinquennium ”: equality between women and men.
Asked about the controversial appointment of Gérald Darmanin as Minister of the Interior, she expressed total support, denouncing, according to her, the political instrumentalization of the case. The minister claims that things go through justice:
“My fight is that all the women who will file a complaint for rape, that they will file a complaint against a well-known filmmaker, against a minister, the neighbor, the bus driver, the baker … that all their complaints be taken, that all their complaints are transmitted, and then justice can pass, either recognize that they are guilty and then they must be obviously convicted because rape is a serious crime, or they are not guilty and then they will not be convicted on the basis of complaints. "
Marlène Schiappa took the opportunity to tackle the criticism of her in passing, saying that she did not need a "patent for feminism".
However, many voices are raised in France and abroad against the appointment of Gérald Darmanin to the post of "first cop of France". Dare Feminism highlights an ongoing case where “the accused finds himself in the position of having to orchestrate the improvement of the reception and accompaniment of women victims of violence by police professionals. “In a petition on Change.org.
Activist Rébecca Amsellem points out that the presumption of innocence is there but that the person concerned ”In charge of pol. welcoming victims to police stations admitted to having exchanged a favor for a sexual act ”
A column published in the World by feminists from all countries denounces the fact that such an appointment brings discredit to the accounts of gender-based and sexual violence.
The Darmanin case was reopened in 2017 for alleged events in 2009. The complainant accuses the Minister of rape after she went through him to have a conviction cleared from his criminal record. The accused pleads a freely consented sexual relationship.