The director of Sciences Po Paris Mathias Vicherat was taken into police custody on Monday, December 4 for domestic violence, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from a source close to the case. He is being held at the 7th arrondissement police station on Paris's left bank, as confirmed to AFP by the Paris public prosecutor's office. The prosecutor's office also confirmed that Vicherat and his partner were both taken into custody on Sunday evening, each accusing the other of domestic violence.
Vicherat had succeeded Frédéric Mion as head of Sciences Po Paris in November 2021, having been forced to resign in February of that year for having covered up suspicions of incest involving political scientist Olivier Duhamel. Duhamel was then president of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (National Political Science Foundation, FNSP), which finances the institution.
Opposed to CNRS research director Christine Musselin and Olivier Faron, director general of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, CNAM), Vicherait had been widely elected by the governing boards of the Institut d'études politiques (Institute of Political Studies) and the FNSP to head Sciences Po Paris.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.