France is immersed in controversy over the president’s defense Emmanuel Macron performed last night by the actor Gerard Depardieuaccused of rape and sexual assault by several women.
Last night Macron declared himself a “big admirer” of the actor and ruled out the possibility of withdrawing the Legion of Honor, as the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, had suggested last week, as long as there is no judicial conviction.
That decoration “is not for morale,” the president pointed out.
Depardieu faces three rape complaints (two by French actresses and the last one filed this week by a Spanish journalist), and in 2020 he was formally accused by a court in one of those cases. In addition, another dozen women have pointed out him publicly but without denouncing him.
In addition, a television program broadcast in France at the beginning of this month caused a stir due to a series of misogynistic, sexist and insulting phrases towards women uttered by the actor during the recording of a documentary in 2018.
“There is one thing in which you will never see me, and that is in manhunts. I hate it”Macron said in an interview Wednesday night on the public television network France 5, in which he said that Depardieu “makes France proud.”
Criticism of Macron for his defense of Depardieu
These words have generated a storm of criticism, starting with Macron’s predecessor in the Elysée, the former socialist president François Hollandestated today that “We are not proud of Gérard Depardieu”.
In a statement to public radio France Inter, Hollande regretted that Macron did not talk about “the assaulted and humiliated women.” “The president was expected to talk about women and not simply say that Gérard Depardieu is a great actor.”
He also recalled that Macron had made the cause of women one of the great issues of his second term. “and we see how he deals with the issue of Gérard Depardieu”.
The president of the Women’s Foundation, Anne-Cécile Mailfert, considered on Hasn’t he always defended the powerful?
Macron’s phrases “are once again an insult to the movement for the liberation of the speech of victims of sexual violence,” stressed environmentalist environmentalist deputy Sandrine Rousseau.
“I have felt nausea. I am not proud, far from it,” Juliette Méadel, Secretary of State for Victim Assistance in 2016-17 with President François Hollande, also confessed in X.
The next day, Depardieuthrough the mouth of his lawyers, He put his Legion of Honor at the disposal of the minister and declared himself a victim of “a media lynching”.
The Grevin Museum removed the figure of Depardieu
This week, the Grevin Museum, the famous gallery of wax figures in central Paris, removed the Depardieu figure due to negative reactions from visitors and on social networks.
On the other hand, authorities are investigating the circumstances of the actress’s death. Emmanuelle Debever, which in 2019 denounced “inappropriate behavior” by Depardieu during a filming. The interpreter died on December 7 in Paris after jumping from one of the bridges over the Seine.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
