Georges Tron, who denies the allegations, faces official complaints from two women
France has been rocked by a second high-profile sex scandal in less than a fortnight with the revelation that two women have begun legal action against one of Nicolas Sarkozy's minister for sexual harassment.
Prosecutors have opened a preliminary rape and sexual assault investigation against Georges Tron, the civil service minister, after the complaints were lodged.
Two women were reportedly encouraged to come forward after the arrest of the former head of International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn in New York, where he faces seven charges of sexual assault, including the attempted rape of a hotel housekeeper.
His arrest sparked shock and disbelief in France — where he was nicknamed the Great Seducer — but also triggered angst and soul-searching over the French media's apparently reluctance to address claims of harassment against politicians, celebrities and other high-profile figures.
Tron, 53, said on Wednesday he had informed the French prime minister, François Fillon, about the legal complaints against him. He accused the plaintiffs, who had both been previously sacked from their town-hall jobs in Draveil, just south of Paris, where he is mayor, of having a grudge and trying to profit from the Strauss-Kahn arrest.
"I am not naive; they are trying to echo an affair taking place the other side of the Atlantic," Tron told Reuters.
One of the women said the arrest prompted her to break her silence. "When I see that a little chambermaid is capable of taking on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I told myself I did not have the right to stay silent," she told Le Parisien newspaper.
"Other women have perhaps suffered what I have suffered. I have to help them. We have to smash this omerta."
Le Parisien said the unnamed women, 34 and 36, had lodged separate complaints against Tron and a woman friend accused of being his "accomplice", claiming they were sexually harassed on several occasions between 2007 and 2010 while working at the Draveil town hall. It is not clear if they knew each other at the time of the alleged assaults, but the paper said they had become depressed afterwards and had both attempted to kill themselves.
But Tron's lawyer, Olivier Schnerb, described the accusations as "pure defamation" and "balderdash".
"Georges Tron has given instructions for me to submit a legal complaint for defamatory accusations. This legal plaint will be submitted when I have seen the other complaint [for sexual harassment]."
Tron, who became a member of the French parliament in 1993 and was elected mayor of Draveil in 1995, is a member of Sarkozy's right-of-centre UMP party.
He told French journalists he had a "reserve of witnesses" and "written elements" against his accusers who he said had been dismissed from the town hall following disciplinary measures.
"I have files on them. I took precautions," he told French journalists. He suggested the women were motivated by "personal vengeance" said they "moved in extreme right circles" among people with whom he was "in conflict".
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was tipped before his arrest to become France's next president in elections next May. He has been released on bail and is under house arrest, awaiting his next court appearance in June.