The Tarn gendarmes, accused of having wanted to “intimidate” a high school student who had arrested President Macron on ministers suspected of rape and violence against women, apologized to the young woman on the night of Friday to Saturday. “Our action was simply aimed at taking into account this person, who had presented himself as a victim, to offer him to collect a possible complaint, or failing that to offer him help, support or a relay to meet local associations for him. provide assistance”, the gendarmerie defended themselves around midnight on Facebook and Twitter. “We would like to apologize to her if our approach to meeting her at school to talk was misunderstood and she considers us to have been awkward,” the statement added.

Thursday, during a visit by Emmanuel Macron to Gaillac, in the Tarn, Laura had apostrophized him: “You put at the head of the state men who are accused of rape and violence against women, why? She was referring to the accusations against the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin and the new Minister of Solidarity, Damien Abad. “Please sir, answer me,” insisted the high school student, while the president put forward the presumption of innocence, neither of them having been convicted.

The images have been shared thousands of times on social networks, Internet users seizing the question to challenge the president themselves. But it was the visit of the gendarmes to Laura the next day, in her high school, which swelled the controversy. Contacted by Agence France-Presse, the young woman could not be reached. She had explained to the Parisian to have been interrupted in the middle of class for an “interview” with the gendarmes in a room of her high school.

The latter would have asked her if she wanted to file a complaint for a sexual assault which she had announced on the sidelines of her exchange with the president. But according to the young woman, who says she perceived their visit as “intimidation”, the conversation quickly turned to her remarks the day before, a gendarme telling her that it was “not to be done”. Since Thursday, the hashtag