A rape investigation targeting French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has been dropped without any charges, days after the 39-year-old was confirmed in his role following a cabinet shuffle.
Paris prosecutors confirmed an earlier report by BFM TV saying that the decision was issued by an investigative magistrate on Friday. Darmanin has consistently denied the accusations and said an encounter with the female plaintiff was consensual.
The complaint against him had already been dismissed by an investigative judge in 2018, but the case was reopened two years later after the Paris appeals court said the magistrate should have conducted their own inquiry instead of relying solely on prosecutors’ findings.
Darmanin’s initial appointment as interior minister in 2020 while he was under investigation caused discomfort even within President Emmanuel Macron’s troops, and prompted feminist groups to demonstrate. Other rape controversies engulfing members of government have come to light in recent weeks. But while Macron chose not to reappoint Damien Abad as minister of solidarity after French prosecutors began investigating him, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou has kept her cabinet position.
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