"the victim is me," replies the Minister of the Interior

In an interview with Le Point, Gérald Darmanin calls himself a "victim" in what he calls a "calumny".

New little phrases that are causing a stir in the Darmanin affair. The Home Secretary has thus said in the pages of Le Point (online Wednesday August 5) that he feels "the main victim" in what he considers to be "slander". For those who have not followed the story, Gérald Darmanin is the target of a complaint for rape and during his appointment, many feminist groups expressed their anger.

"The victim in this story is me. It's me whose name they dirty. It is to me that we attribute behaviors that I have never had. (…) It's hard to live with. But I don't have the right to complain ", added the former Minister of Public Accounts.

Two versions confront each other to sum up the events. On the one hand, there is Sophie Patterson-Spatz, whom she accuses since 2017 of rape. The latter had asked him in 2009 when he was in charge of mission at the UMP (party now LR) to overturn a conviction for blackmail and malicious calls against a former companion. According to her, the former Minister of Action and Public Accounts would have dangled her support and she would have felt compelled to "go to the pan", an expression she gave to investigators.

For the Home Secretary, sexual intercourse with Sophie Patterson-Spatz was voluntary.

Filed without further action at first, the procedure was relaunched by the Paris Court of Appeal which asked for new investigations in early June, recalls the France-Presse agency.

"I am at the disposal of justice," repeats Gérald Darmanin. For him, the affair is "an initiatory passage for those who disturb when one does national politics."

From Darmanin to Dupond-Morreti, the Élysée offers a gloomy change for the cause of women

Video by Clara Poudevigne