MP Hugo Prevost excluded from the LFI group, accused of sexist and sexual violence within the Student Union

The members of the La France insoumise group at the National Assembly decided this Tuesday, October 8 in the evening to dismiss the elected official from Isère, after accusations made within the student union of which he was the spokesperson until in April 2024.

Excerpt from At Pol, our political newsletter reserved for our subscribers: discover it for free.

Lessons appear to have been learned from past cases. This is what inspires the way in which the new case of accusations of sexist and sexual violence that La France insoumise (LFI) must face is being handled this time. After a group meeting in the evening this Tuesday, October 8, the members of the LFI group at the National Assembly decided to exclude Hugo Prevost, deputy for Isère, for “serious acts of a sexual nature which may constitute criminal offenses, prior to his election”, according to a press release. Former spokesperson for the Student Union (EU) between April 2023 and April 2024, Hugo Prevost was elected deputy in July in the 1st constituency of Isère against the outgoing Macronist, who was none other than the former Minister of Health and government spokesperson, Olivier Véran.

“A desire for sexual and political control of women”

In its press release published jointly with that of LFI, the Student Union accuses it of “acts of moral and sexual harassment, patterns of predation, acts resembling sexual violence”, over a period “from 2020 to 2024”, Who “would have continued after the departure of Hugo Prevost from the EU national team last March”. “Hugo P. held positions at the highest hierarchical level in the EU and was notably responsible for the training of union officials until his departure,” underline the authors, who judge that “his position facilitated the fact that he could commit violence through the control and dependence that it generated” and that “on the other hand, this violence was committed precisely with the aim of maintaining his position and the powers associated with it.”

“The testimonies gathered underline a desire for sexual and political control of women”, is added, then affirming that Hugo Prevost would have “reproduces this way of functioning with multiple comrades by theorizing both the sexual management of women within and outside the organization, and by theorizing the fact of pushing activists to the point of wear and tear like fuel to burn “. If the nature of “violence” is not specified, and no complaint has to date been filed, the union undertakes to support and accompany “all victims who wish to file a complaint”. The Student Union also calls on Hugo Prevost to resign from his post as deputy “in the name of the necessary exemplarity that we expect from our political representatives, out of respect for the victims, and to prevent other violence from being committed.”

Contacted by Release this Tuesday evening, Hugo Prevost did not follow up.

Politically involved since the movement against the Labor law in 2016, the young man already has to his credit a small career in high school and then student unionism, and even co-founded the Student Union, resulting from successive splits from the Unef since 2017 , from close members of La France insoumise. “From afar, it looked more like a worker.”we whisper in the entourage of the environmentalist mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle, who helped him during the last legislative elections, “and I heard that he had a good campaign against Olivier Véran”.

Just after the 2022 presidential election, several cases targeting those close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon had already rocked La France insoumise, and fractured this party where collective discipline is king. First, accusations of sexual violence targeting activist Taha Bouhafs, then a candidate for the legislative elections, and forced to withdraw his candidacy. Then a complaint charging LFI deputy Eric Coquerel, re-elected as head of the finance committee, with assault and sexual harassment.

And finally the conviction for domestic violence of another rebellious deputy, Adrien Quatennens, also coordinator of the movement, who was unable to run again in 2024 after the dissolution, under pressure from feminists. Accused of opacity and dysfunction, the LFI monitoring committee against sexist and sexual violence (CVSS) found itself under fire from criticism. A reform of this body is supposed to have been initiated since then.

“He could harm other people”

The Prevost affair seems to demonstrate that support is now more effective. At the end of August, a Student Union official contacted the CVSS of La France insoumise by email, both on her behalf, but also on behalf of other victims. The one she accuses left the union in March, before being elected deputy in July. “It was with his departure that speech was able to begin to be freed, before there was a sort of leaden screed, a climate of permanent fear,” she explains to Release. “That’s what pushed me to denounce him, also because by gaining the status of elected official, he could harm other people, while he was going to have his own cabinet, when we know how sometimes treated parliamentary collaborators”continues the whistleblower, who initially wishes to remain anonymous. She claims to have received a response from the monitoring committee to this “global file” against Prevost “in a week”a quick turnaround compared to previous cases.

The unit then conducted hearings with “about ten people” during the month of September, before referring the case to the office of the LFI group in the Assembly, responsible for conducting adversarial proceedings with the accused MP, but also for deciding on the political sanction that the parliamentarians from his camp will take against him . Until the group’s meeting this Tuesday evening, all the rebellious deputies had not been informed, which was observed Libé by trying to contact them during the day ahead of their debate. Things were mainly taken care of by the president of the group Mathilde Panot, and the rest of the office. “In this case, the management of LFI was rather good, as victims and witnesses we felt well received and supported by the CVSS and the group’s office,” estimates our source.