French top uni rocked by domestic violence scandal, pro-Palestinian demo

Director of Sciences-Po Paris Mathias Vicherat announced on March 13, 2024 he was stepping down. (AFP)

• Accusations of violence against him had been made in a “vague manner,” Vicherat said

PARIS: An elite French university was dragged into the national spotlight on Wednesday as its director quit over alleged domestic violence and a pro-Palestinian demonstration sparked accusations of anti-Semitism.
Mathias Vicherat, director of the prestigious Sciences Po school in Paris, said he was stepping down after being ordered to stand trial in a domestic violence case.
Students demanded his resignation after he and his partner Anissa Bonnefont were briefly detained in December, each accusing the other of domestic violence.
Sciences Po, founded in 1872, is a hugely influential cornerstone of French elite education and a cradle of political power.
Its alumni list features President Emmanuel Macron and several former French and foreign leaders, as well as top names in literature, media, culture and fashion.
Vicherat, 45, said he was resigning to “protect” the school from any fallout from the domestic violence case.
“What counts here is not me but the institution,” he said.
Accusations of violence against him had been made in a “vague manner,” Vicherat said, and the legal system would “allow the facts to be established.”
The criminal case was brought by prosecutors, as neither Vicherat nor his former partner filed any legal complaint.
The Paris prosecutors’ office confirmed that both had been served a summons on charges of reciprocal domestic violence “leading to an incapacity to work of more than eight days.”
The case will go to trial in the autumn, added a source close to the investigation who asked not to be named.
Vicherat already stepped aside temporarily in January after a preliminary investigation was launched and students blockaded the school, protesting against what they said was “impunity” for people committing “sexual and sexist violence.”
Sciences Po students welcomed his decision to quit but regretted that the matter had dragged on for so long.
Lachlan, an Australian exchange student who declined to give his last name, said: “If something like this happens in my country, people would step down quite quickly.”
A French student, who declined to give her name, said Sciences Po “should apply the values that they advertise.”
Sciences Po’s reputation had already been tarnished when Vicherat’s predecessor Frederic Mion was accused of covering up incest allegations against star political scientist Olivier Duhamel.
After Mion resigned in 2021, Vicherat took over, saying the fight against sexual violence was an “absolute priority.”
Meanwhile, more controversy struck the Sciences Po campus after around 100 students occupying the main lecture hall as part of a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Tuesday were accused of barring entry to a Jewish student and insulting her.
The student, a member of the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) that claims a national membership of 15,000, was greeted with shouts of “Don’t let her in, she’s a Zionist,” the union said on X.
The incident sparked condemnation at the highest level of government, with Macron telling Wednesday’s cabinet meeting that the remarks were “unspeakable and perfectly intolerable.”
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau went to the Sciences Po Foundation’s board to “underline the seriousness” of what happened and urged the university to remain a “place of teaching” and “healthy debates,” its management said.
The management added it was taking legal action over anti-Semitic acts and said it regretted a “hardening” of relations between students and the “embedding of an unacceptable poisonous climate.”
But students on the ground said the government should be more circumspect in its condemnation.
“It’s really sad that unverified information is taken directly to the French president,” said one student who declined to be named. “We don’t tolerate any form of anti-Semitism.”
Another student told AFP that the Jewish student had been denied access to the lecture hall because “she previously intimidated pro-Palestinian students” at the protest.
The student had been the only representative of the Jewish student union to be barred from entering.
“Other UEJF members were able to take part in the debates,” said the student, who declined to give her name.
France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.
The country has seen a rise in pro-Palestinian protests since militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, sparking a retaliatory Israeli military campaign in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Anti-Semitic acts in France have also increased, according to the Council of Jewish Institutions in France.