Denis Baupin

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Denis Baupin (2006)

Denis Baupin [ dəˈni boˈpɛ̃ ] (born June 2, 1962 in Cherbourg ) is a French politician who was a member of the Europe Écologie-Les Verts party until April 2016 . From 2012 until his resignation in May 2016, he was Vice President of the French National Assembly .

Live and act

Entry into politics

Baupin completed an engineering training at the elite university École Centrale Paris . Since 1989 he was a member of Les Verts , the French Green Party. From 1990 onwards he worked for their top politician Dominique Voynet , first as her advisor in the European Parliament , then as an assistant in the election campaign for the National Assembly in 1993 and finally in the 1995 presidential election . When Voynet became Environment Minister in Lionel Jospin's cabinet in 1997, he became her advisor. In 1998 he became party spokesman at the national level; he remained in this office until 2002.

City Council of Paris

As a transport officer in the city council of Paris (2001 to 2008) under Mayor Bertrand Delanoë , he acquired the disgraceful names Khmer vert ("green Khmer"; alluding to the Cambodian extremist movement Khmer Rouge ) and Ayatollah anti-voitures ("anti-auto ayatollah") ), because he had taken extensive measures in favor of cycling and public transport compared to private vehicles. In addition to setting up bus and bicycle lanes in the Paris metropolitan area, Baupin's services in this role include, in particular, the Vélib ' bicycle rental system .

Since March 2008 he has been Deputy Mayor of Paris with responsibility for sustainable development and the environment. In particular, he was responsible for drawing up the climate protection plan (Plan climat) for the city of Paris.

Vice-President of the National Assembly

Denis Baupin (2nd from left) in 2012 with other EELV politicians at the inauguration of a new section of line 3 of the Paris tram

On June 20, 2012, Baupin was elected to the National Assembly as a member of the 10th electoral district of Paris for the Europe Écologie-Les Verts (EELV) party that emerged from Les Verts . A week later he became Vice-President of the Chamber, at the same time that Claude Bartolone took office as its President.

As a parliamentarian, he dealt in particular with the question of France's exit from nuclear energy . This was an election promise made by the Socialist Party , which had been in power since 2012 , but which President Hollande dropped immediately after the election. For this, Baupin sharply criticized the socialists, with whom his EELV party had entered into an electoral alliance.

However, as a member of the right wing of the EELV, he subsequently endorsed the party's remaining in government and supported the government's energy transition bill introduced by the socialist environment minister, Ségolène Royal . He also voted for the law introduced by the government after the attack on Charlie Hebdo to expand the powers of the secret services (July 2015) and for the constitutional amendments following the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris , which defines the state of emergency in the constitution as well as the expatriation of those convicted of terrorism.

Resignation from the party

Due to political differences with the EELV party leadership, in particular with Cécile Duflot and their supporters, he announced his resignation from the party on April 18, 2016. While Duflot and her supporters were fundamentally opposed to the government under President François Hollande , Baupin, like his wife Emmanuelle Cosse and other EELV politicians , advocated cooperation with and in the government; Cosse, who had been the general secretary of EELV, had accepted a ministerial post in Valls II's cabinet in February 2016 and also left the party.

Sexual harassment allegations scandal

About three weeks after Baupin's departure from the party, the Internet magazine Mediapart and the public radio program France Inter published allegations on May 8, 2016 by four female EELV MPs and four other women who accused him of sexual harassment in previous years. As a result, Baupin resigned from his position as Vice President of Parliament on May 9, 2016.

Some of the women allegedly affected said that they found it particularly outrageous that Baupin had repeatedly campaigned publicly for women's rights, particularly in connection with sexual violence; He also used to morally condemn other politicians who were accused of sexual harassment. A striking appearance by Baupin with other male politicians on International Women's Day on March 8, 2016 finally triggered the decision of the women to go public together.

On June 2, 2016, three of the alleged victims - MP Isabelle Attard , EELV party spokeswoman Sandrine Rousseau and local politician Elen Debost - filed criminal charges against Baupin. An interview with Baupin had appeared in the newspaper L'Obs the day before , in which he commented on the allegations published in the media and denied any allegations of criminal acts; He described his advances towards women as "games of seduction" ("  Jeux de séduction  ") by mutual agreement.

On December 8, 2016, Baupin announced that he would not seek a candidacy in the parliamentary elections in France in 2017 , but also did not want to withdraw from politics.

A preliminary investigation into suspected sexual aggression and harassment, which the Paris Public Prosecutor had already opened on May 10, 2016, was closed on March 6, 2017 due to the statute of limitations .

On February 4, 2019, criminal proceedings began against Mediapart and France Inter as well as against six defendants against whom Baupin had filed charges of defamation . At the hearing, the public prosecutor pleaded for acquittal. The prosecuting attorney praised the “courage of those who appeared before the court” (ie the defendants; Baupin had stayed away from the trial as a joint plaintiff) and stated: “No element in this trial allows the seriousness of the statements [of the accused] in doubt. ”She described the research work by Mediapart and France Inter as“ serious ”. On April 19, 2019, all of the defendants were acquitted; the joint plaintiff Baupin, however, was sentenced to pay damages to the defendants totaling 7,500 euros. When the verdict was pronounced, the presiding judge stated that four of the journalistic articles criticized had a "defamatory character". However, all of the accused, both the accused Baupin and the journalists, acted in good faith. The wording in the articles was "sufficiently careful". The hypothesis of the political conspiracy sought by Baupin's lawyers is in contradiction to essentially identical testimonies from different people of different origins. The imbalance of the presentation in the article was not objectionable to the extent that Baupin did not react to attempts at contact by the journalists before publication. The court described the fact that Baupin had joined the proceedings as a joint plaintiff as "presumptuous and abusive". Baupin's lawyer initially left open whether his mandate would appeal the judgment; On April 30, 2019, leading French media reported that Baupin had let the appeal deadline pass.

Web links

Commons : Denis Baupin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d biography of Denis Baupin. In: linternaute.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016 ; accessed on July 15, 2019 (French).
  2. ^ A b c Marie-Violette Bernard: "Khmer vert", bosseur acharné et père du Vélib ': qui est Denis Baupin, l'élu écologiste accusé d'agression. In: francetvinfo.fr . May 11, 2016, accessed on May 16, 2016 (French).
  3. ↑ M. Denis Baupin. French National Assembly , accessed May 15, 2016 (French).
  4. ↑ Le vice-president de l'Assemblée Denis Baupin quitte EELV. In: lefigaro.fr . April 18, 2016, accessed May 15, 2016 (French).
  5. ↑ 17 French ex-ministers no longer want to remain silent. In: FAZ.net . May 15, 2016, accessed May 15, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Accusations de harcèlement sexuel: Baupin démissionne de la vice-présidence de l'Assemblée. In: liberation.fr . May 9, 2016, accessed May 15, 2016 (French).
  7. ↑ Cette époque où Denis Baupin s'engageait pour les droits des femmes. In: liberation.fr . May 9, 2016, accessed May 16, 2016 (French).
  8. ↑ Trois femmes portent plainte contre Denis Baupin. In: lefigaro.fr . June 2, 2016, accessed June 3, 2016 (French).
  9. ↑ EXCLUSIF. Denis Baupin: "Je ne suis pas le DSK des Verts". In: nouvelobs.com . June 1, 2016, accessed on June 3, 2016 (French, full text subject to charge).
  10. ↑ Denis Baupin ne sera pas candidat aux législatives. In: lemonde.fr . December 8, 2016, accessed September 24, 2017 (French).
  11. ↑ L'enquête sur Denis Baupin classée sans suite pour prescription. In: lemonde.fr . March 6, 2017, accessed September 24, 2017 (French).
  12. ↑ Chloé Pilorget-Rezzouk: Affaire Baupin: "La moindre des choses, c'est d'assumer". In: liberation.fr . February 4, 2019, accessed February 5, 2019 (French).
  13. ^ Affaire Denis Baupin: le parquet requiert la relaxe des médias et des femmes qui accusaient l'ancien député écologiste. In: francetvinfo.fr . February 9, 2019, accessed February 10, 2019 (French).
  14. ^ Yann Bouchez: Procès Baupin: l'ex-député écologiste condamné pour procédure abusive . In: Le Monde . April 22, 2019, p. 11 (French).
  15. ↑ Condamné pour procédure abusive, l'ex-député écologiste Denis Baupin n'a pas fait appel. In: francetvinfo.fr . April 30, 2019, accessed March 2, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Baupin, Denis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Cherbourg