Pascale Mitterrand (pictured), 41, confirmed to MailOnline, after being outed by French media, that she was indeed the woman who filed a complaint with police
The alleged rape victim at the centre of the sex scandal engulfing Emmanuel Macron’s government is the granddaughter of former French president Francois Mitterrand, it emerged today.
Pascale Mitterrand, 41, issued a statement through her lawyers corroborating a report which claimed she had filed a complaint with the police against Nicolas Hulot, who is now the Ecology Minister.
Her alleged rape claim was investigated by detectives for three months, but then dropped because the alleged crime had taken place 11 years before – putting it beyond the statute of limitations.
Despite such disturbing claims being published across France today, Mr Macron is standing by his colleague and friend Mr Hulot, saying there is currently no question of the 62-year-old being sacked.
Ms Mitterrand was a 20-year-old apprentice photographer working for the SIPA agency when she allegedly had sexual relations with Hulot, then 42, while spending a week picturing him at his holiday home on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in 1997.
In statements filed with police in 2008, Ms Mitterrand said: ‘We could have met in many other places, but he insisted that it happened at home.’
Ms Mitterrand’s barrister, Michel Dufranc, said on Friday: ‘Pascale Mitterrand’s name has been linked without her consent to a media storm around Nicolas Hulot. She and her family in no way welcome this publicity.’
Socialist politician Gilbert Mitterrand, Pascale’s father and the son of Francois Mitterrand, told Paris magazine Ebdo – which originally broke the story: ‘My daughter became different after that.’
Mr Mitterrand said Pascale, now a married mother of two, had left France and was now living abroad.
It all means that there are now two members of Mr Macron’s government who have been accused of sex attacks.
Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin, 35, is said to have attacked a married former call girl, but has also kept his job.
French Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition Nicolas Hulot (pictured) looks on as he leaves the Elysee palace following the weekly Cabinet meeting. The incident allegedly occurred 21 years ago
Both men vehemently deny any wrong doing, with Mr Hulot saying: ‘I’m afraid of the rumours, I’m not afraid of the truth,’ adding: ‘I hate sexism and macho behaviour.’
Mr Hulot is also said to have sexually harassed a second unnamed woman he met through his Hulot Foundation – an organisation that campaigns on environment issues.
The alleged rape victim is the granddaughter of former French president Francois Mitterrand (pictured) seen here at the age of 79 in his Paris office
Money is said to have been paid out by the Foundation as part of a settlement with Mr Hulot’s former lover, but this has been denied by him and his organisation.
Mr Darmanin is meanwhile the subject of a preliminary enquiry into ‘abuse of weakness, abuse of power’ and rape.
He is said to have attacked Sophie Spatz, now 46, a decade ago while he was working as a legal advisor.
French politics is notorious for its sex scandals, with presidents and their most senior lieutenants regularly having affairs, leading to frequent allegations of establishment cover-ups.
The political career of former Socialist finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn was brought to a halt by a succession of rape allegations, but none were ever proved.
The Socialist President Mitterrand infamously kept a secret family on the French state, using police and secret agents to protect it.
It was not until after his death in January 1996 that his mistress and love child were finally identified.