Overview

• The Paris prosecutor has requisitioned that Placé face trial before the tribunal correctionnel on charges of sexual assault and harassment, one of France’s first MeToo-era prosecutions of a senior politician.
• Accusations include touching a former collaborator’s thighs, buttocks and breasts during 2014–2016 party events and similar contact with a second woman at a 2017 francophonie gathering.
• Prosecutors highlight a uniform modus operandi of inappropriate touching “at the back of a car” in an alcohol-laden context to support their requisitions.
• Placé’s former tenure as secretary of state is classified as an aggravating circumstance under French penal code for both assault and harassment.
• Held under judicial supervision since 2022, Placé denies all allegations and attributes any physical contact to unintentional behavior.