Emmaüs and the Abbé-Pierre Foundation have opted for transparency despite the shock caused by the accusations of sexual violence targeting the icon of the fight against poor housing; a decision that has been praised but not without criticism.
A first explosion in July, followed by another on Friday. Abbé Pierre, long one of the French people’s favorite personalities and an emblematic figure of the social struggle, is accused by a total of 24 women of having committed sexual violence, according to reports from a specialized firm.
After being alerted by a former victim, the associations founded by the priest who died in 2007, Emmaüs International, Emmaüs France and the Abbé Pierre Foundation, decided to launch “a listening exercise (…) to establish whether other similar events could have occurred”. A rare approach.
In July, following the first wave of revelations, EELV MP Sandrine Rousseau, known for her feminist commitment, had already judged on X that the Abbé-Pierre Foundation and Emmaüs were “courageous to have made things transparent”.
“What is happening is truly an exception, in terms of the steps taken by the organisations concerned,” Osez le Féminisme spokesperson Elsa Labouret told AFP.
However, she regrets that the collection of victims’ words “arrives extremely late”.
– “A turning point” –
The three structures insist on their “total support” for the victims.
They entrusted the collection of testimonies to the Egaé firm, presented as a national reference, a choice which may have raised eyebrows in light of the controversies which accompanied the career of its co-founder, the feminist activist Caroline de Haas.
“The way in which Emmaüs has decided to tackle this issue will mark a turning point (…). It has never happened that a structure has looked squarely at the issue of sexual violence committed by someone within it in such a transparent and determined manner,” says Caroline de Haas.
Despite the suffering expressed by women who have reported sexual violence, “several people express relief that the facts are finally public and recognized,” notes the Egaé report published Friday.
Former president of Emmaüs France and now head of an integration structure within the Movement, Thierry Kuhn also testifies to “many reactions from people who say: +we are proud to belong to a movement that has been able to tackle this issue head on and has been able to react healthily: we listen to the victims, we believe them, we support them and we make these revelations public+”.
But the attitude of the associations does not prevent angry reactions, while revelations in the press have reported testimonies already known several decades ago.
Adrien Chaboche, general delegate of Emmaüs international, thus mentioned, in an interview with the newspaper La Vie in July, facts brought to the attention of certain members of the Movement “at a time when Emmaüs, and more broadly French society, did not have the same sensitivity to this violence”.
“I think it’s a bit easy,” says Revoii, head of the association for victims of sexual violence Mouv’Enfants, about work that, according to him, “doesn’t go far enough.”
“Is it normal that an organisation that has not denounced crimes and acts of sexual violence (…) can take justice into its own hands by hiring a private firm?” the activist protested to AFP, demanding that the organisations look into their responsibilities and that the courts take up the case.
mng/grd/or
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