Claude Meisch has again commented on the “Cocottes affair”.

On February 8th, Claude Meisch (DP), Minister of Education and Housing, was caught in a veritable media storm. He was accused, At the beginning of January, he slapped one of his employees in a restaurant belonging to the Cocottes restaurant chain in the capital. The accuser reported in a video on Instagram that she had observed the scene, but was unable to witness the alleged slap. The video quickly disappeared from the social network. However, it continued to spread on the Internet.

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The former mayor of Differdange had always denied the allegations, and the Luxembourg public prosecutor’s office sided with him a few days later and decided to close the file “as there is no evidence of the commission of a crime”.

The balance of power

In recent days, however, the minister returned to the “affaire Cocottes” in an interview with radio station 100.7 and an interview with the newspaper “d’Lëtzebuerger Land”. In the final questions of the interview, the DP minister was asked in particular about the “power relationship between a minister and his civil servant”.

“I understand that people are asking themselves this question,” replies the 52-year-old politician. “But I have to say that the people affected, my employee and I, had and have a good working relationship; there is nothing that clouds this relationship (…). Although we both regret that the whole country had to report on it.”

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The DP minister (whose popularity has not necessarily fallen as a result of the affair, judging by the Politmonitor results we published on Tuesday) also explains that he “received the video on the evening of the incident” and “immediately the person concerned, d. H. (his) employee called to inform her”. He added: “In the following weeks I thought the video had disappeared. I thought there wouldn’t be a shitstorm after all. Until I learned that some people were actively working to distribute the video.”

The balance of power with other ministries

The most important, however, appears to be the very last question of this interview, in which Minister Meisch is asked whether this affair has weakened him in his role as education and housing minister, especially in his negotiations with the Interior and Finance Ministries.

“I didn’t find that out,” replies the person who succeeded Henri Kox (déi Gréng) in the Housing Ministry in November last year. “In my opinion, this has not affected my strength as a politician in discussions and decisions. Even if it’s something I regret. I would have been happy if that had never happened and we hadn’t discussed it. You can believe me.”

* This article first appeared on “Virgule” and was translated into German with slight adjustments. Translation: Jan Kreller