French left-wing MP’s future in doubt after domestic violence conviction
Lille (AFP) –
Clément ZAMPA, Béatrice JOANNIS
A prominent young leader of France’s hard-left France Unbowed party was handed a suspended four-month prison sentence Tuesday after admitting to slapping his wife, a conviction that jeopardises his chances of returning to the political front-lines.
Adrien Quatennens remains a National Assembly lawmaker but had resigned his post as party coordinator after the revelations by investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine in September.
It was the latest of several incidents of domestic violence, sexual harassment and assault that have roiled French political parties in the wake of the #MeToo movement, in particular among left-wing groups that emphasise the need for tougher responses to violence against women.
Quatennens appeared at the hearing in the northern city of Lille, where his wife was also present — the couple are in the midst of conflictual divorce proceedings.
After pleading guilty, he was given the suspended prison term for “violence against a spouse” between October and December 2021, as well as for sending “repeated hostile messages,” and also fined 2,000 euros ($2,100) in damages.
Details of the claims were unavailable because the hearing was held behind closed doors.
Lawyer Jade Dousselin said Quatennens would make a statement later Tuesday, but said “this sentence is a solemn warning that does not prevent him from returning to the Assembly and fulfilling his elected mandate.”
France Unbowed colleagues have also voiced support, but it remains unclear under what conditions Quatennens would be allowed to return, if at all — not least after his wife evoked “several years” of “physical and psychological violence” at his hands in a statement to AFP in late November.
“You can’t compare it to guys who hit their wives or who spike a woman’s drink,” said Patrick Proisy, the France Unbowed mayor of Faches-Thumesnil, a Lille suburb, one of around a dozen supporters outside the courthouse.
But women’s activists were outraged when party founder and heavyweight Jean-Luc Melenchon, who narrowly missed out on the second round of this year’s presidential election against Emmanuel Macron, initially backed his protege in a tweet seen as playing down the violence. He has since kept quiet on the case.
“The subject we’re now discussing is what are the conditions and terms of his possible return,” Manuel Bombard, who took up Quatennens’ coordinator role and is set to become party leader, told France Inter radio.
