Emmanuel Macron denounced on Wednesday a “manhunt” against Gérard Depardieu after the broadcast of a shocking TV documentary, the head of state disavowing his Minister of Culture who called into question the Legion of Honor of the actor. “There is one thing you will never see me in, and that is manhunts. I hate that,” said the President of the Republic on the France 5 television channel.
Depardieu targeted by two complaints for rape and sexual assault
The Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak announced on the same channel on Friday that a “disciplinary procedure” would be initiated by the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor against the star actor. The interpreter of “1492: Christopher Columbus” is notably targeted by two complaints in France for rape and sexual assault, and indicted in one of the two cases. He refutes these accusations.
The actor “makes France proud” said Emmanuel Macron
The President of the Republic said he was “a great admirer of Gérard Depardieu (…) an immense actor”. “He made France, our great authors, our great characters known throughout the world (…) he makes France proud,” continued Emmanuel Macron, taking the opposite view from the Minister of Culture.
Rima Abdul Malak had estimated for her part that the actor’s comments reported in the magazine “Complément d’investigation” were “shameful to France”. In these images, broadcast on France 2 at the beginning of December, the giant of French cinema, known for having interpreted Commissioner Maigret as Cyrano, multiplies the misogynistic and insulting remarks by addressing women, not sparing a little girl with his remarks obscene.
Emmanuel Macron judged on Wednesday that Rima Abdul-Malak had “advanced” by speaking about a procedure which could remove the actor’s distinction. “There are sometimes outbursts over comments made. I am wary of the context,” he insisted. “I understood that there were controversies over (passages) of the report,” he clarified, taking up the arguments of members of the Depardieu family in a column in the Sunday newspaper. The latter, including actress Julie Depardieu, denounce a “cabal” and evoke “a staging” and “suspicious” cutting shots in the report.
“It is not on the basis of a report that we remove the Legion of Honor”
Returning to the subject of the Legion of Honor (awarded in 1996 by Jacques Chirac), Emmanuel Macron stressed that it “is an Order” of which he is “in fact the grand master”, a distinction “which is not there to give morals. “And so it is not on the basis of a report or this or that thing that we take away the Legion of Honor from an artist because at that price, we would have taken away the Legion of Honor to many artists”, further highlighted the President of the Republic.
And to conclude: “you can accuse someone, there may be victims, but there is also a presumption of innocence that exists”. “I simply want” that Gérard Depardieu “can defend his rights like everyone else” and “continue to work, to create”, underlined the head of state.
A President of the Republic “chief promoter of rape culture” according to Sophie Bussière
These comments caused a strong reaction on the left and in women’s defense associations. Olivier Faure, the boss of the PS, wrote on his social networks: “Violence against women is a major cause of the five-year term… This president does not believe in anything he announces whatever the subjects”.
“Emmanuel Macron’s words on the subject of Depardieu are once again an insult to the movement to free the speech of victims of sexual violence,” the environmentalist MP Sandrine Rousseau also attacked on her networks.
Sophie Bussière, spokesperson for the Ecologists, portrayed on her networks a President of the Republic “chief promoter of rape culture”. Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, also expressed her resentment: “Nothing is wrong with the president’s comments regarding Depardieu. I don’t have enough of a tweet to say to what extent it is undignified, abject for the victims and anachronistic.”