Songs, slogans, signs and flags. As in around thirty French cities, Paris responded on Thursday to the call to demonstrate by the “Feminist Strike” collective, three weeks after the support given by Emmanuel Macron to Gérard Depardieu, accused of rape. In the cold and darkness, several dozen feminists of all ages gathered Thursday evening at Place Saint-Augustin.
In their hearts, their heads and their voices, one objective: to denounce “the old sexist world”. “We are not in Saint-Augustin to turn into a snowdrift,” booms Suzy, member of the National Collective for Women’s Rights, into the microphone. We are here to express our anger against the President of the Republic who allows himself to hide the fact that Gérard Depardieu is being prosecuted for rape. »
An “old sexist world” blighted by “impunity”
The “sexist old world” is “not a question of age or generation,” whispered the septuagenarian a few minutes before speaking. “We’re fed up with sexist violence, we’ve been fighting it since the 1970s.” At the other end of the age pyramid, Manon, 20, defines the old world as carrying “a culture of rape and impunity.
Union flag in hand, this member of the Unef national office does not need to be asked to develop her thoughts. “By defending Depardieu, Macron is vouching for a system of violence. The place of the individual in society affects the handling of the case, the powerful will use power that the victims will not have,” laments the second-year political science student at Lyon-2.
Spokesperson for Dare to Feminism and present in the procession Thursday evening, Violaine De Filippis-Abate places the MeToo movement on the border between “the old sexist world” and the new world, under construction. “A lot of people missed the turn. We have to be able to raise awareness of the problem and convince everyone,” says the activist.
A new world “with fucking convictions”, thunders Sandrine Rousseau
In the cold, three Femen brandish signs with an explicit message, under the flashes of press photographers. “Let’s break the silence and the old world”, we can read on one of the posters, while an activist encourages them in a low voice. A few tricolor scarves from elected officials mingle in the crowd, including Manon Aubry (LFI) and elected environmentalists.
Among them, Annie Lahmer, one of the four female politicians to have implicated Denis Baupin, in 2016. “My generation knew this old sexist world, and the Depardieu affair is a new episode. If we are feminist and activist, it is to stop this world,” confides the elected environmentalist of the Île-de-France regional council, aged 64. “But Depardieu is an extreme case,” says a white-haired man next to her. “No, there are plenty of people like him,” snaps the politician.
The “sexist old world”? Sandrine Rousseau (EELV) smiles nervously when it comes to defining it. “It’s there, look around you, it’s a world where women are a priori consenting, where women are afraid in the street. » At the heart of the procession of demonstrators, a twenty-minute walk from the Elysée, the MP projects herself onto the new world. “It would be a world where the president does not make scandalous remarks to defend an actor accused of rape (…). And there will also be fucking convictions. »