Feminists denounce this Wednesday the support of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, for the actor Gérard Depardieu, indicted for rape and widely criticized after the broadcast of images in which he multiplies misogynistic and insulting remarks towards women and a little girl. “Of Gérard Depardieu, you said: ‘He makes France proud’. Five words which bind us all against our will and signify French impunity, that of an idol, of a sacred monster to whom we forgive everything. Depardieu does not need your presidential support,” write the signatories of this open letterinitiated by the #MeTooMedia collective and published by the daily The world.
“No one must deny their ability to think under the cover of presumption of innocence,” they add, regretting that Emmanuel Macron pays no attention to the alleged victims and shows a “disinterest in the cause and a total ignorance of the field of sexist and sexual violence”. The text, initiated by the association founded by the women who denounced the behavior of the former star of the 8 p.m. news Patrick Poivre D’Arvor, indicted for rape, responds to an interview on December 20 on France 5.
” Manhunt “
Emmanuel Macron denounced a “manhunt” against Gérard Depardieu. “He made France, our great authors, our great characters known throughout the world. (…) He makes France proud,” he declared. The former icon of French cinema has been in turmoil since the broadcast at the beginning of December of a report from “Complément d’investigation” on France 2, in which we see him multiplying misogynistic insults, his remarks of a sexual nature not sparing not a little girl.
The report returned to his indictment for rape in 2020, following a complaint from an actress in her twenties, Charlotte Arnould. He refutes these accusations. Depardieu, 75, is also the target of a complaint for sexual assault filed by the actress Hélène Darras for facts a priori prescribed, as well as another in Spain by a journalist, Ruth Baza, accusing him of a rape in 1995 Some voices in French cinema have since denounced his behavior towards women, particularly on the sets, and the silence which surrounded him.
A pro-Depardieu camp mobilized, until the publication on Tuesday of a support forum denouncing a “lynching”, signed by around sixty cultural figures, including the director Bertrand Blier, the actresses Nathalie Baye and Charlotte Rampling, actors Jacques Weber, Pierre Richard and Gérard Darmon, music personalities Roberto Alagna, Carla Bruni and Jacques Dutronc.