#MeToo campaign turns on French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot
By
Francis Dubois
15 February 2018
As the #MeToo movement encounters a growing backlash, rape charges against Nicolas Hulot in recent days have brought the media frenzy to absurd heights.
The accusations against Hulot, rumors of which had been circulating and amplified in the media for at least a week, came from the newly-founded Ebdo magazine. Ebdo was launched in January by Thierry Mandon, a former junior minister for state reform of France’s Socialist Party (PS) government. The magazine cited a 2008 complaint “for acts of rape” against Hulot over events that occurred in 1997. The complaint was filed intentionally after the expiration of the statute of limitations, by a granddaughter of the late President François Mitterrand.
The second charge involves a former associate of the Hulot Foundation. This employee has “issued an official denial … of the rumors” on the LCI television channel, declaring that she had “no comment about this affair which is not in fact an affair.”
Hulot, who received public support from President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Wednesday, preempted the publication of the article in Ebdo by speaking to BFM-TV, to reject the accusations and rule out any resignation. A few hours later, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb reiterated the government’s support for Hulot.
The author of the 2008 complaint, Pascale Mitterrand, insisted that her identity not be revealed and that the matter not be used politically against Hulot, and claimed she did not want it to be reported. She herself has not said it was an act of rape but of “act under constraint.” Her father, Gilbert Mitterrand, told LCI that her family “had nothing do to with this media…