Sciences Po President Frédéric Mion
Credit: CHARLES PLATIAU /AFP
The head of prestigious French university Sciences Po resigned on Tuesday over criticism of his handling of an incest scandal that has rocked the country’s intellectual elite.
Frédéric Mion’s resignation from the post of director of what is a hothouse for future top politicians and journalists came amid a raft of high-profile incest and sexual abuse cases in France.
They were triggered by the publication of a book last month, La Familia Grande, in which author Camille Kouchner accused a top political expert and commentator, Olivier Duhamel, of sexual abuse of a relative.
The book sparked an outpouring of testimonies no social media under the hashtag #Metooinceste.
Mr Duhamel has denied the allegations but stepped down from his various academic posts. Paris prosecutors last month launched an investigation into “rape and sexual abuse by a person with authority over a … minor”.
Mr Mion first expressed shock and surprise at the incest allegations against Mr Duhamel — a former head of the organisation that runs the university — but later admitted he had been informed of the accusations in 2018 without investigating further.
The higher education ministry last month launched a probe into the school’s handling of the affair.
Mr Mion said in a statement that if a provisional report from the investigation "confirms that no system of concerted silence or complacency existed within our establishment," it "nonetheless points to errors in judgement on my part in the treatment of the allegations… as well as inconsistencies in the way I expressed myself”.
Student unions expressed satisfaction at his resignation.
“I feel very relieved after six weeks of mobilisation and revelations about the backstory to the the ‘Mion-Duhamel’ affair, Luka, a student from the “Mion resign” student group told AFP.
“Sciences Po will be able to become a safer space to free up expression of victims of sexual violence,” he said.
Olivier Duhamel, French political specialist has denied allegations he raped his stepson when he was a minor
Credit: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP
The resignation came as a preliminary inquiry was launched in Toulouse and Grenoble over allegations of abuse of students and a “rape culture” at two other prestigious political sciences schools following a raft of allegations on social media under the hashtag #sciencesporcs.
France has been accused by some commentators as being slow to break longstanding taboos over sexual abuse and paedophilia.
However, those taboos appear to now be challenged on an almost daily basis with the launch of fresh investigations.
On Tuesday, French prosecutors said they had opened a probe into accusations of child sexual assault against a prominent television producer and his husband.
Gerard Louvin, who has produced some of the most popular shows on French television over the last decades, and his husband Daniel Moyne are being investigated for raping and complicity in raping minors, Paris prosecutors said.
The inquiry was initially opened in January after a complaint was filed by Mr Louvin’s nephew, named as Olivier A. over alleged assault when he was aged 15.
Two other separate complaints also alleging sexual assault by the couple have now been merged into this inquiry, prosecutors said.
On Wednesday, French cinema boss Dominique Boutonnat was detained for questioning over allegations he raped and sexually abused his godson.
Mr Boutonnat, who denies wrongdoing, is the head of the National Cinema Centre, CNC, which oversees the French film sector.
Graffiti on a wall reads "Duhamel, and the others, you will never be in peace"
Credit: Francois Mori /AP
Last week, prosecutors opened a preliminary inquiry into prominent cinema and stage actor Richard Berry after his daughter accused him of incestuous sexual abuse while she was in her mid-teens.
On Tuesday night, France’s justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti, said he was “in favour” of changing French law to make any sexual intercourse between an adult and a minor under 15 a crime.
Currently, suspects can be acquitted of receive lenient sentences if they can prove there was consent. The minister said it was time to make sex with under-15s an automatic crime.
French society had reached a “turning point” and that “leads us to change the law”, said Mr Dupond-Moretti.
The issue of consent came to the fore last year when publisher Vanessa Springora released Consent, a book in which she accused prize-winning writer Gabriel Matzneff of abusing her while she was a minor. She said she was under his sway even if she appeared to consent to their relationship.
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