Daniel Cohn-Bendit

Passages from Daniel Cohn-Bendit's 1975 book 'Le Grand Bazar' and subsequent televised remarks about children's sexuality triggered major controversies beginning in 2001 and again during the 2009 and 2019 European election campaigns. The old formulations are authentic, and Cohn-Bendit himself has acknowledged that they are now intolerable.

Attribution

Personally implicated

In January 2020, Daniel Cohn-Bendit claimed on LCI that LFI candidate Marianne Maximi had participated in an attack on an LREM constituency office in Clermont-Ferrand, involving broken windows and violence. He subsequently acknowledged a 'factual error': Maximi had not been present and no windows had been broken.

Attribution

Personally implicated

Daniel Cohn-Bendit supported Emmanuel Macron from the 2017 presidential election onwards, then the LREM list in the 2019 European elections. His choice deepened the break with EELV and Yannick Jadot. During the 2019 campaign, Cohn-Bendit called the Greens a 'sect', considering their internal operations too closed.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

After EELV's federal council voted 70 % against ratifying the European Fiscal Compact in September 2012, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a strong supporter of the treaty, announced that he was putting his participation in the movement 'on hold'. The split illustrated divisions over Europe within the environmentalist movement.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

In November 2010, Daniel Cohn-Bendit accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon of 'ploughing Front national's fields', particularly in reference to some of his positions on Europe and Germany. The Parti de gauche reacted strongly and condemned what it saw as normalising the Front national.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Three days before the 2009 European elections, a France 2 debate deteriorated into a personal confrontation between François Bayrou and Daniel Cohn-Bendit. Cohn-Bendit called his rival 'despicable' and 'pathetic', before Bayrou brought up his 1975 writings concerning children's sexuality.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

A European federalist, Daniel Cohn-Bendit campaigned for a 'yes' vote on the European Constitutional Treaty in France's 2005 referendum. His position and joint campaign meetings with politicians from other parties caused fierce clashes with environmentalists and left-wing figures supporting 'no'.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

During the May 1968 events, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, then a German national, was served with a deportation order and refused permission to return to French territory following a stay in Germany. He challenged the measure before the administrative courts.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

In Frankfurt, Daniel Cohn-Bendit was tried on appeal following a conviction handed down in 1968. In January 1969, the court reduced his sentence to six months' imprisonment, suspended, while upholding his guilt for incitement to riot and public disorder.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Personally implicated

On 27 April 1968, Daniel Cohn-Bendit was detained in Nanterre and questioned in connection with a student's complaint alleging intentional assault and battery and an investigation against persons unknown concerning a leaflet giving instructions for making a Molotov cocktail. He was released the same day.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated