"Struggles take time": Rousseau judges that the Bayou affair is "not necessarily" over

Targeted by Julien Bayou, Sandrine Rousseau responds to him. Four days after the announcement of the dismissal of the legal proceedings for moral harassment and abuse of weakness against the former head of the Ecologists, the MP has issued a lengthy clarification.

The facts attributed to Julien Bayou "do not require legal qualification to be understood politically: they fall within the characteristic mechanism of sexist domination, within power and by power", judges the Parisian elected official on the social network Blusky on February 24.

The starting point of this affair: the first accusations, revealed by Le Figaro , of the ex-partner of the man who was then the leader of the environmentalists in the summer of 2022. The latter, Anaïs Leleux, sent an email in July 2022 to the internal cell of the Greens on sexist and sexual violence, denouncing psychological violence.

A few weeks later, it was Sandrine Rousseau's turn, questioned on the subject on France 5, to mention the "behaviors" of her environmentalist colleague "which are likely to break the moral health of women" . The MP also explains "having received Julien Bayou's ex-partner at her home for a very long time".

At the time, Anaïs Leleux did not want to be heard by the unit, and no complaint was filed nor any judicial investigation opened.

In March 2024, Anaïs Leleux finally filed two complaints, one against Julien Bayou, the other against the EELV party, which became Les Écologistes. Following these complaints, the party entrusted a specialized firm with an internal investigation into these accusations, before Julien Bayou slammed the door on the movement and the parliamentary group, denouncing a "disloyal and scandalous relentlessness ".

During the early legislative elections last June, Julien Bayou stood again but ultimately withdrew his candidacy when the left-wing union decided to present a candidate against him.

Last October, Les Écologistes announced that the internal investigation was closed, without any evidence of crimes having been found. On February 18, the courts decided to dismiss Anaïs Leleux's complaint.

In the process, the former Green MP deplored during a press conference the "negative consequences" of this affair on his life, accusing the leadership of the Greens, embodied by Marine Tondelier of "mediocrity" and "cowardice" , without citing her by name. "I lost everything", the former rising star explained.

Sandrine Rousseau, for her part, was directly criticized by Julien Bayou. "Since there was no investigation, he is not exonerated," Rousseau and others said for example at the beginning of this affair, thus deplored the former environmentalist, accompanied by her lawyer Marie Dosé.

"Legally, the dismissal of the case makes him presumed innocent of the facts referred to in these complaints. This is not necessarily the end of the procedure, but it is an indisputable milestone, which indicates the state of the law in this specific case," Sandrine Rousseau replied on the Blusky network.

Julien Bayou's ex-partner is now waiting to receive the legal file to consider filing a new complaint with civil action.

"If we are, as we claim, a feminist party, why do we have so much trouble recognizing that if some of our members have been humiliated by a man who used the share of power that we had entrusted to him for this purpose, this contravenes our rules, our values ​​and requires a reaction from our party?" asks Sandrine Rousseau.

"Sometimes the struggles take time," continues the former candidate for the Green primary in 2021, judging that "it is precisely on these subjects that we expect our party to address, and not on reactions solely based on police and judicial activity."

The national leadership, embodied by Marine Tondelier, who intends to remain the leader of the movement at the next congress in April, deplored "the suffering" and "the negative consequences" that this affair has caused for Julien Bayou.

The movement also promises to initiate an internal debate on "the lessons to be learned."