Ségolène Le Stradic
Paris: French first lady Brigitte Macron is facing widespread criticism after a video emerged of her speaking demeaningly of feminist protesters.
The video has prompted a growing outcry from French politicians and other commentators, in part because Macron’s husband, President Emmanuel Macron, has long presented the battle for women’s equality as a key priority.
The video showed Brigitte Macron on Sunday, chatting privately backstage at a theatre with a French comedian, Ary Abittan, and using a term that roughly translates to “stupid bitches” to describe activists who had disrupted the comedian’s show the day before.
Macron used the term while jokingly vowing to protect the comedian if the protesters returned. The video of their conversation appeared to have been filmed by a bystander.
Abittan has faced opposition from women’s rights campaigners since he was accused of rape in 2021, both before and after the charges were dismissed by an appeals court in January.
Four activists from a feminist collective called #NousToutes – which translates to “all of us women” – interrupted his performance Saturday, a member of the collective said. Footage of the protest showed demonstrators wearing masks covered with an image of Abittan’s face and the word “violeur”, or “rapist.”
A day later, Macron met with Abittan backstage before he began another performance, according to the presidency.
“I’m scared,” the comedian is heard saying lightheartedly to Macron in the video.
Macron replies in a joking tone with the slur, and says that if the protesters return, “we’ll kick them out”.
After the video was posted online, #NousToutes turned the insult into a hashtag that was quickly reposted by countless feminist activists and artists in France.
A spokesperson for the French presidency said that “Mrs Macron’s sole intention was to reassure an artist”, adding, “in no way is she attacking a cause”.
Instead, the spokesperson said, Macron “condemns the radical methods used to prevent an artist from performing onstage”.
Marine Tondelier, the head of the Green Party, a centre-left opposition party, said in a TV interview on Monday that she was “extremely shocked” by the exchange. “A first lady shouldn’t say that,” Tondelier added.
But Minister for Public Accounts Amelie de Montchalin said in a TV interview on Tuesday: “I think we all use words that are part of everyday language, and we understand how, for an artist, being prevented from doing their job for reasons that have nothing to do with performing can lead to frustration and therefore, to comments.”
She added of Macron: “She didn’t hold a press conference to say that; those were comments taken from a private space.”
Macron’s use of the slur occurred less than two months after 10 people went on trial accused of cyberbullying the first lady by spreading false claims about her gender and her marriage.
In July, Macron and her husband filed a defamation suit against Candace Owens, an American right-wing podcaster who repeated the claims. The case has yet to go to court.
In October, Owens filed a motion to dismiss the case, which the Macrons opposed last week.
When he was first elected in 2017, Emmanuel Macron spoke about “the fight for the complete elimination of violence against women”.
But feminists say that France still has not sufficiently faced up to the #MeToo era.
Macron himself has faced criticism for supporting actor Gerard Depardieu, who, in recent years, has been accused of sexual harassment and assault.
When new allegations against the actor surfaced in 2023, Macron described himself as an “admirer” of Depardieu, who “makes France proud”.
In May, Depardieu was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on the set of a movie in 2021.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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