The feminist collective of Tarn-et-Garonne demonstrated this Tuesday, December 14 in Montauban, on the occasion of the plenary session of the Departmental Council. Around 10am, about ten activists brandished printed letters to form the message “Baylet Resignation”. They ask Jean-Michel Baylet, former president of the department (PRG), still elected departmental councilor, and also boss of La Dépêche du Midi, to cease his elected functions.
Jean-Michel Baylet is accused of rape by Nathalie Collin, the daughter of Yvon Collin, former senator (PRG) of Tarn-et-Garonne. She says she was assaulted when she was 12 years old. The Paris public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation in 2020 for “rape” and “sexual assault” on a minor under 15 years old. The former president of the Left Radical Party was heard in open hearing at the end of February 2021 by the police, then confronted with Nathalie Collin last October.
Why is there no defamation complaint?
In the hemicycle, some elected officials did not remain silent on Tuesday morning, and asked Jean-Michel Baylet to take a clear position. The former president of the department Christian Astruc thus took the floor, and asked Jean-Michel Baylet to file a defamation complaint against Nathalie Collin, if he contested the facts. However, since the start of the investigation, the boss of La Dépêche du Midi has never lodged this complaint. And this Tuesday morning again, Jean-Michel Baylet declared that he had “nothing to be ashamed of“. Last March, he denounced” slander “.
According to the feminist collective of Tarn-et-Garonne, “a person accused of pedocriminality and who has not lodged a complaint for defamation cannot with dignity sit in the community which manages child protection“.
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