Mediapart has had access to new information in the current investigation into rape allegations against France's interior minister Gérald Darmanin, claims that date back to 2009. Some documents we have seen contradict parts of his defence. The file also shows that when he was questioned by the investigating judge in mid-December 2020 the minister - who denies the claims - changed his version of events over a key exchange of SMS messages, in which the complainant accuses him of having “abused his position”. And in addition the minister gave new explanations to justify some of the more embarrassing aspects of the case. Antton Rouget and Marine Turchi report.
Lawyers representing French interior minister Gérald Darmanin, 38, have confirmed he has been questioned 'at his own request' by magistrates investigating rape allegations filed against him by a woman who he claims he was in a consenting relationship with.
There has been widespread outrage in France after video footage emerged of three police officers apparently gratuitously beating a black music producer in Paris, who was left with serious injuries from punches, kicks, baton blows and the explosion of a tear gas grenade in his studio last weekend. François Bonnet argues here that the events highlight how interior minister Gérald Darmanin has made a policy of flattering the most extremist fringes of the police, creating disorder amid heightened police violence. It is high time, he writes, for Darmanin to go.
French interior minister Christophe Castaner on Monday evening provided further details on the nationwide lockdown of the population announced earlier by President Emmanuel Macron, adding that 100,000 police officers would be deployed to ensure the public only left their homes for reasons that should be justified by a written statement, downloaded from an official website and signed, or face a fine of up to 135 euros.
After ten days of open crisis at the highest echelons of state, President Emmanuel Macron was on Tuesday October 2nd, 2018, forced to accept the resignation of interior minister Gérard Collomb – just hours after refusing it. Prime minister Édouard Philippe will become interim interior minister in the short term. Coming weeks after the resignation of high-profile environment minister Nicolas Hulot, this new departure further weakens the government, as Pauline Graulle, Manuel Jardinaud and Ellen Salvi report.
Bernard Cazeneuve, who on Friday sounded cautious note on jihadist motive for attack, said on Saturday that killer must have been 'radicalised very rapidly'.
