Brigitte Bourguignon kicks into touch. Guest of RTL this Wednesday morning, the Minister of Health of the new government of Elisabeth Borne was questioned about her support for the Minister of Solidarity, Damien Abad, in turmoil since this weekend. The former boss of the LR deputies in the Assembly faces accusations of rape on two women in 2010 and 2011, relayed in an article published Saturday by Mediapart, which he denies “with the greatest force”. “I won’t comment on that. It does not belong to me”, reacted Brigitte Bourguignon this Wednesday. “He is not my minister, he is a government minister”, she then dissociated herself.
“I do not have to support or not to support”, added the one who has just succeeded Olivier Véran. Then asked about her support for the women who make these accusations, Brigitte Bourguignon was a little clearer. “Obviously I support women in general and always. I am one,” she concluded. A position which sums up both the embarrassment in which the government finds itself over the case of Damien Abad but also the crest line on which it is trying to defend the new minister.
On Monday, government spokeswoman Olivia Grégoire referred the charges against Damien Abad to justice. “The government is at the side of those who have the courage to speak,” she said, before recalling that “justice is the only one who must or can decide”. The day before, Elisabeth Borne had claimed not to be “not aware” of the reports sent on this subject to LREM. “On all these subjects of harassment, sexual assault, there can be no impunity,” assured the head of government. Also on Sunday, Gérald Darmanin and Éric Dupond-Moretti, respectively Minister of the Interior and Minister of Justice, assured that they had “no comment to make”. Damien Abad is currently the subject of two closed rape complaints, but the justice says it is analyzing a new report.
