Julien Bayou, former leader of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) accused of “psychological violence” against his ex-partner, announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he was withdrawing of his party and his group in the National Assembly to be able to defend himself. “I will no longer speak on their behalf during the investigation,” he adds.
The day before, Anaïs Leleux announced that she had filed a complaint against him for “moral harassment” and “fraudulent abuse of a state of weakness”. In a long interview broadcast on Tuesday by the site Les Jours, Ms. Leleux, feminist activist, blames “psychological violence” on her ex-companion, who “made her believe” that she was “crazy”.
The thirty-year-old, who campaigned within Amnesty International, the NousToutes collective and founded the Pourvoir feminist think tank, also accuses him of abuse of weakness. While she was “suicidal” and in “post-traumatic stress”, she signed “full of papers”: “A separation agreement, a memorandum of understanding, a deed of sale…”. “He came after me when I was at the end of my tether,” she judges.
The activist also filed a complaint against X “for failure to assist a person in danger,” she told Les Jours. The complaints against Mr. Bayou and against EELV are also being analyzed, according to the prosecution.
Facts “taken very seriously”
“The facts to which [Anaïs Leleux] testifies are extremely serious and we take them very seriously. Listening to the words of women victims, encouraging them and acting accordingly, is our responsibility as a party,” the Green Party responded on Wednesday.
Julien Bayou had to leave the head of his party because of the first revelations on this affair, in July 2022. The EELV internal unit on sexual violence and harassment was contacted following an email from Anaïs Leleux . No complaint was then filed nor any judicial investigation opened. It took a new turn in September, when MP Sandrine Rousseau accused Mr. Bayou of “behavior likely to break the moral health of women”, after having “received at length” Ms. Leleux at her home.
Julien Bayou resigned a few days later from the national secretariat of EELV, denouncing, through the voice of his lawyer, “an instrumentalization of the fight” against violence against women “for political purposes”, as the party Congress approached. .
