Aurore Bergé filed a complaint for defamation

The former minister responsible for Equality between women and men, Aurore Bergé, announced this Tuesday, October 1 on France Info that she had filed a complaint for “defamation” Monday, after the release of Victor Castanet’s book, The Ogres. The Ensemble pour la République des Yvelines MP is accused of having prevented the holding of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the dysfunctions of private nurseries and of having spoken “secretly” with Elsa Hervy, general delegate of the French Federation of Crèche Companies (FFEC).

“A complaint was filed by my lawyer for defamation yesterday because I will not accept that my name can be smeared and even less on defamatory accusations”replied the former minister. “I changed the law to allow large private groups to be better controlled, I myself brought to the National Assembly an amendment which was voted unanimously, which allows large state inspections to go to the headquarters of large private groups to demand everything from them. I was the first Minister for Families to invite all the prefects to ask them for great firmness,” she defends herself. “That’s the facts, the rest is rumor and defamation.” she again justified herself.

In The Ogresjournalist Victor Castanet claims to have evidence, recordings and emails, to corroborate his remarks. “In this book, there are extracts (…) truncated exchanges, sentences that do not appear there, words that have been changed,” she begins to explain. “I am accused of having given an interview by repeating word for word a note that was sent to me. It’s quite simple, you just have to look at the note sent to my office and the script of the interview to see that it’s anything but word for word. she suggests.

“I did not perjure myself”

The journalists of France Info then questioned her about a commission of inquiry that was held last year. Faced with the proceedings, she claimed not to have “of friendship, acquaintance, personal relations, with no person from any lobby”. Louis Boyard, LFI deputies, asked to hear him on this subject. “Already, when you are in a commission of inquiry, it is a binding act because you take an oath. If you lie, you risk criminal prosecution and prison. So obviously, in no case did I lie during a commission of inquiry. In no case did I perjure myself.” She also clarified that her relations with Elsa Hervy are of order “professional” : “I’ve never seen her face to face. I’ve never had coffee with her in my life.”.

In reaction to the complaint, Victor Castanet reaffirmed Figaro put forward facts following a certain number of testimonies obtained and documents. “I had WhatsApp exchanges, Telegram messages, emails written by the minister, and witnesses from the private side but also from her collaborators (…) who tell how Aurore Bergé and Elsa Hervy got along a year ago year to manage their media sequence, so that the boss of the federation of private crèches supports the minister and does not attack government policy (…) and that in exchange the government of Madame Bergé would show benevolence towards to the demands of the private sector.”

Watch the entire exchange in the video below: