PARS.- Women’s rights activists criticized French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday for apparently taking sides with the actor Grard Depardieuwho faces allegations of sexual abusesaying that the star: “makes France proud.”
Speaking to the France 5 channel on Wednesday night, Macron said he is a big admirer of the actor.
A documentary released earlier this month says 16 women have accused Depardieu of harassment, groping or sexual abuse. The France 2 report shows the actor making obscene statements and gestures during a trip to North Korea in 2018.
In addition, Spanish journalist and writer Ruth Baza, 51, recently filed a complaint against Depardieu for sexually abusing her during an interview in Paris in 1995, Spanish police said Thursday.
Regarding the accusations, Macron said he believes in the presumption of innocence and the judicial process. “You will never see me participate in a manhunt,” the president said.
Macron criticized his Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, for the decision to initiate a disciplinary process that could culminate in Depardieu’s decoration of the Order of the Legion of Honor being withdrawn. Abdul-Malak: “He overreached a little,” she said.
The Legion of Honor is not “a moral tool” nor should it be withdrawn “on the basis of a documentary,” Macron added.
The case of Gerard Depardieu
Depardieu, 74, has been investigated since December 2020 for rape and sexual abuse, after actress Charlotte Arnould denounced him in 2018 for these crimes that, she said, took place at the actor’s home. The investigation remains open.
Women’s advocates vigorously denounced Macron’s statements on Thursday.
Michelle Dayan, president of Lawyers 4 Women, said that as a lawyer and citizen she believes in the presumption of innocence. “But it should not be used as an excuse not to listen to women who say they are victims of abuse,” she added.
Dayan said on the France Info radio station that: “violence against women begins there… in the image of women transmitted,” due to Depardieu’s scandalous statements.
The activist group Osez le feminisme (dare to feminism) denounced on X, formerly Twitter: “one more confirmation that, decidedly, Emmanuel Macron does not live in the same world as us.”
“We, the prey, face a man (Depardieu) who describes himself as a ‘great hunter’, but who, in the words of the president, becomes the victim of a ‘man hunt,'” the group tweeted.
Anne-Cicile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, told BFM TV that Macron’s statements were very serious because: “he judges the women who filed a complaint, the women who raised their voices… He is taking sides.”
FUENTE: AP
