BREAKING: Woman charged over sex video that tripped up Macron ally

Issued on: 18/02/2020 - 18:34Modified: 19/02/2020 - 00:33  GMT/ZULU

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Paris 

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24

French prosecutors on Tuesday filed invasion of privacy charges against the girlfriend of a Russian activist who leaked a sex video that ensnared a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron.

Alexandra de Taddeo, 29, was the recipient of the video that prompted the ruling party's Benjamin Griveaux to abruptly pull out of the running for mayor of Paris last week.

She is charged with invasion of privacy and publishing images of a sexual nature without consent over the leaking of a video sent by Griveaux in 2018, which showed him masturbating, along with racy text messages.

Pyotr Pavlensky, a Russian activist who was granted political asylum in France in 2017, has admitted to uploading the images onto a purpose-built website, saying he wanted to expose the "hypocrisy" of Griveaux, a married father of three.

Pavlensky, 35, also risks charges over the affair that ended the campaign of the former government spokesman -- the first senior French politician to bow out of an election over a sex scandal.

Pavlensky and de Taddeo were taken into custody in Paris on Saturday and questioned for two days. De Taddeo was released on Tuesday and ordered to refrain from contact with Pavlensky.

Her lawyer Noemie Saidi-Cottier confirmed that her client had received the messages from Griveaux but denied that she had kept it with a view to using them against him.

"She kept them to keep them," she said, adding that she was "not behind the publication of the images".

- Outpouring of sympathy -

Pavlensky, who was still being questioned Tuesday evening, is also being probed over a knife fight at a New Year's Eve party in Paris.

Paris prosecutors have requested he remain in detention over that incident.

The leaking of the video triggered an outpouring of sympathy for Griveaux in France, where politicians and the media have long dismissed sex scandals as private affairs.

Pavlensky, who made global headlines in 2013 when he nailed his scrotum to Red Square in Moscow as a form of political protest, told us at France24 last week that he posted the video of a 42-year-old who had made families a core theme of his campaign.

With just a month to go until the municipal elections, former health minister Agnes Buzyn was scrambled to take his place as the Paris mayoral candidate of Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party.

She faces a stiff challenge to oust the Socialist incumbent Anne Hidalgo -- Griveaux was already running in a distant third place before the video emerged.

He was originally detained on Saturday on accusations he pulled a knife during a brawl at a party in Paris, before investigators shifted their focus to the leaked sex video.

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Macron names Senegal-born spokeswoman in mini reshuffle

Date created : 01/04/2019 - 14:23  GMT/ZULU

Newly appointed French government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye, left, and her predecessor Benjamin Griveaux at a handover ceremony in Paris on Monday AFP

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Paris

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24

French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed his Senegalese-born media advisor as government spokeswoman, one of three new faces for his cabinet as it gears up for the European Parliament elections next month.

Sibeth Ndiaye, a 39-year-old born in Dakar, only obtained French citizenship in 2016 while working as media advisor for Macron's presidential campaign.

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She replaces Benjamin Griveaux, whose resignation last week came ahead of a suspected run for Paris mayor next year.

"France has given me a lot. Today, it's my turn to give something back," Ndiaye said at a handover ceremony in Paris on Monday, praising her parents for helping her and her sisters "break through glass ceilings".

After growing up with a politician father and a mother who was president of Senegal's Constitutional Council, Ndiaye moved to Paris to study at university and became a leftwing student activist before joining the Socialist Party in 2002.

"Her nomination is a strong endorsement of diversity in a high-profile job, a promotion and a sign of the president's trust," Philippe Grangeon, one of Macron's top advisers, told French daily Le Monde.

"It's a challenge for this engaging young woman, whose path has been quite different from that of a typical government minister," he added.

The three new faces in the government are all aged under 40 and keep Macron's pledge for a gender-balanced cabinet in tact.

Cedric O, a 36-year-old former treasurer for Macron's campaign whose father is South Korean, has replaced digital affairs minister Mounir Mahjoubi, who is also planning to compete for the Paris mayor job.

The reshuffle was prompted by the departure of European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau to head Macron's Republic on the Move list for the European Parliament vote on May 23-26.

Her job was taken by Amelie de Montchalin, 33, a Republic on the Move lawmaker heavily involved in building the French budget.

"Working on European matters will require plenty of combativeness and plenty of energy," she told BFM television on Sunday.

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Paris: Clashes erupt as 'yellow vests' protest at unrepentant Macron

January 5, 2019  21H:25  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Paris

PARIS - Rioters in Paris torched motorbikes and set barricades ablaze on the upmarket Boulevard Saint Germain on Saturday, as protests against high living costs and the perceived indifference of President Emmanuel Macron turned violent on the fringes.

The latest “yellow vest” marches began peacefully but degenerated in the afternoon as protesters threw missiles at riot police blocking bridges over the Seine.

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Officers fired tear gas to prevent protesters crossing the river and reaching the National Assembly. One riverboat restaurant was set ablaze and a policeman was wounded when he was hit by a bicycle hurled from a street above the river bank.

Two months after they started blocking roads, occupying highway tollbooths and staging sometimes-violent street protests in Paris, the yellow vests wanted to inject new momentum into a movement that weakened over the holidays.

Macron’s government, shaken by the unrest, had this week hardened its stance, branding the protesters agitators seeking to overthrow the government.

Riot policemen run near a fire during a demonstration by the "yellow vests" movement at Boulevard Saint Germain in Paris, France, January 5, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

Driving the unrest is anger, particularly among low-paid workers, over a squeeze on household incomes, and a belief that Macron is deaf to citizens’ needs as he enacts reforms seen as favoring the wealthy.

“They have no right to leave us in the shit like this,” said protester Francois Cordier. “We’re fed up with having to pay out the whole time, we’ve had enough of this slavery, we should be able to live on our salaries.”

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux escaped from his office through a back door after a small number of protesters broke into the compound and smashed up vehicles.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said about 50,000 people had protested in cities nationwide, including Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rouen and Marseille.

The turnout was higher than last week but a small fraction of the numbers seen in the first weeks of the protests.

Slideshow (23 Images)

“POWER TO THE PEOPLE”

As darkness fell, officers dispersed scores of yellow vests gathered on Paris’s Avenue des Champs-Elysees. Television images showed hooded youths setting a car alight on a side street, but there was no repeat of the scenes in November when shops were looted, banks vandalized and the Arc de Triomphe was defaced.

Authorities have blamed the worst of the violence in recent weeks on anarchists, anti-capitalists and extreme groups on the fringes of the yellow vest movement.

The protests come 18 months into Macron’s tenure and his drive to reshape the economy, and have already forced him into concessions.

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Last month, Macron promised tax cuts for pensioners, wage rises for the poorest workers and the scrapping of planned fuel tax increases, at a cost to the Treasury of 10 billion euros ($11 billion).

It was the first big U-turn for a president elected 18 months earlier on a platform to break with traditional French politics and liberalize the heavily regulated economy.

In a New Year’s Eve address, Macron vowed to press on with his reform agenda, saying: “We can’t work less, earn more, cut taxes and increase spending.”

Faced with record low popularity ratings, Macron is expected soon to set out his plans for the coming months. These include a nationwide debate on ecological, fiscal and institutional questions, the results of which he says will feed into policy.

($1 = 0.8777 euros)