Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the 94-year-old former French president, has been accused by a German journalist of fondling her buttocks at the end of an interview in his office 18 months ago, reports The Times.
Mr Giscard d’Estaing, who led France from 1974 to 1981 and remains active in public life, could not recall meeting Ann-Kathrin Stracke, 37, a reporter for the WDR television network, his office director said. “If the allegation were true he would of course be terribly sorry but he doesn’t remember anything,” Olivier Revol told Le Monde.
Stracke, who has lodged a complaint with the Paris prosecutor, alleges that Mr Giscard d’Estaing put an arm round her waist and a hand on her buttock as they posed for a photograph with her two-person TV crew. “I was very surprised and disapproving of this aggression which made me extremely uncomfortable,” she said. “I tried to push away [his] hand but didn’t manage to.”
She said he continued during a second photograph and then insisted on showing her pictures of himself with other leaders.
Read more of this report from The Times (subscription required).