A FRENCH junior minister has resigned after he was accused by two women of sexual assault.
Georges Tron, the civil service minister and mayor of the town of Draveil, south of Paris, is under preliminary investigation after two former municipal employees made the allegations in Le Parisienlast week. Mr Tron strongly denies the allegations, but said last week he was considering stepping down in order not to cause embarrassment for Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
One of his accusers said she had been encouraged to speak up by the arrest two weeks ago of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French head of the International Monetary Fund, on charges he attempted to rape a chambermaid in New York.
In a statement, prime minister François Fillon said: “The prime minister, together with the president of the republic, takes note of this decision [to resign], which does not in any way prejudice the next steps the justice system will take with regard to the complaints made against Georges Tron, the legitimacy of which he contests.”
Mr Tron has called the accusations “incredible” and said the two women were dismissed from their town hall posts in Draveil. His lawyer has been instructed to file a defamation complaint in response.
In his resignation letter, the minister said he would disprove the “vindictive” accusations against him by the two women, one of whom he said was sacked for fraud and the other for “undignified behaviour”.
Mr Tron said last week the case against him was an attempt “to echo what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic”, a reference to the charges against Mr Strauss-Kahn.