Companion of Julien Bayou between 2017 and 2021, feminist activist Anaïs Leleux announced in an interview with the website Les Jours, Wednesday March 6, that she filed a complaint on Tuesday against the environmentalist deputy of Paris for “harassment” and “abuse of weakness” . “He attacked me when I was at the end of my tether,” she denounces in this interview, accusing Mr. Bayou of “psychological violence.”
“Julien Bayou is someone who makes you think that you are experiencing a unique relationship with him. But, little by little, he will make you believe that you are crazy. For years, and it got worse towards the end, he tried to put it into my head that I had psychiatric disorders,” continues Ms. Leleux. The latter claims to have made “two suicide attempts, in April and June 2022”.
This is the first time that the feminist activist has made her accusations publicly against the former leader of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV). In July 2022, she contacted the cell about sexist and sexual violence within the party, without her name being revealed. Then, on September 19, the environmentalist deputy for Paris Sandrine Rousseau mentioned her case without mentioning her on the set of “C à vous”, on France 5.
“I think that there are behaviors that are likely to undermine the moral health of women,” she warned in particular, targeting Mr. Bayou but without mentioning any particular violence. His statements, however, pushed the latter to leave in September 2022 the presidency of the environmental group in the National Assembly, which he occupied with Cyrielle Chatelain, then his position as national secretary of EELV, opening an internal crisis within the movement. “There is no Bayou case. There are no charges. There is no fact underlying the anathemas that I have heard,” the MP defended in an interview with Le Monde in October 2022.
A complaint targeting the Green Party’s investigation unit
The internal unit of EELV announced in February 2023 the closure of the file, unable to “complete its investigation”. “The initial hearing [of Mr. Bayou’s ex-partner], the starting point of the investigation, could not take place,” and “no one else contacted the cell about Julien Bayou,” she said. Mr. Bayou then felt he was “cleared” of these accusations.
Anaïs Leleux affirms that, “one week” after the cell closed the investigation, Mr. Bayou “put her on notice and then summoned her for summary proceedings before the courts regarding the house in the Center-Val de Loire [ which they had] bought together in September 2020, when [she] was suicidal, isolated”, in order to obtain “occupation compensation”. “The timing meant that I really experienced it as a way to punish myself, and it revived my suicidal thoughts,” she recalls to Les Jours.
Anaïs Leleu claims that she made the decision to file a complaint against Mr. Bayou because she is “no longer suicidal” and that she “was able to buy the house back in November 2023.” “He no longer has any means of pressure on me. I have a job, I am surrounded. The psychological conditions are better met,” she believes. The activist explains that she “ended up being afraid of a man whom [she] thought she knew and who in fact [she] did not know. When you're under the influence, and I still was until recently, it's difficult to speak."
Ms. Leleux also announces that she has filed a complaint against “Its members are not solidly trained (…). Furthermore, the exchanges are not secure,” she accuses, arguing that she “is not just waiting for the condemnation of a man, but the condemnation of a system.”
While Mr. Bayou did not wish to react to Les Jours, the environmentalist party claims to have carried out an audit, “independently of this affair”, which notably resulted in training. Describing itself as “pioneers on these issues”, the movement nevertheless believes that “this is unfortunately not a guarantee that great suffering cannot be experienced”.
