The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti spoke on France 2 and declared that he was "for absolute equality of the rights of men and of the rights of women."
This Sunday, July 19, Eric Dupond-Moretti was interviewed in the 8 pm newspaper on France 2. This interview was an opportunity to review the way in which his appointment as Minister of Justice was received. If many feminist associations have been outraged, it is because the new Minister of Justice has not always had glorious words about women and their rights. In particular, he has repeatedly decribed the #Metoo movement which aims to free the voice of women victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
On France 2, he tried to justify himself and assured to be "feminist" : "I said that I was for an absolute equality of the rights of men and the rights of women and in particular on the field of wages, and on this question, I am feminist and I say it, without having to blush, I am feminist . " before adding: "I said that #MeToo had freed up the woman's voice and that it was a good thing, I also said that it was absolutely necessary, and I wrote it, to allow the most timid women to say the I said that you have to condemn the bastards who don't behave well with women. " he said explaining to Laurent Delahousse "that we took two or three sentences out of context."
In order to see more clearly what is being said today by the Minister of Justice and what has been said before, we decided to go back to the times when his remarks left something to be desired concerning his support for women's rights.
For him, the DSK case is "a matter of friends having a good time. "
At the time lawyer David Roquet, prosecuted for aggravated procuring and fraud in the Cartlon affair, Eric Dupond-Moretti spoke about the presence of Dominique Strauss-Kahn among the accused. According to him, this had prompted the judges to be treated unfavorably and to extend "the notion of client to that of pimp" before adding that it was, above all of a business of friends having a good time. "
"When you get raped and go back 25 times, that's 24 times too many."
During the trial of Georges Tron, accused by two former municipal employees of having forced them to digital penetrations between 2007 and 2010, Eric Dupond-Moretti attacked feminists. At the time a lawyer, he had notably called on the European Association against violence against women at work: "It is all well and good for the voices of women to be released, but you are preparing a curious way of life for future generations. (…) Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if your son touches the knee of a friend in his car, is that a sexual assault? " This particularly critical discourse towards feminism did not go unnoticed. Moreover, during this case where Georges Tron had been acquitted, Eric Dupond-Moretti had considered the complainants of people "inconsistent" and "manipulative". He said in particular, about one of the complainants: "One of them says that she was in love with him. She accepts sex, then says no overnight but goes back 25 times. When you are raped and when you go back 25 times, it's 24 times too many. "
"There are also women who are banned by power"
In 2019, during an interview with GQ, Eric Dupond-Moretti spoke about the #MeToo movement by having a #NotAllMen speech on the pretext"that all men are not predators" something feminist activists are aware of. He added: "It is normal that we denounce the behavior of men who stand up badly, that we support the victims, the plaintiffs, to help the most timid among them, that we let these women speak out. But the receptacle for these complaints cannot be the web. What do we do with the adversarial, the presumption of innocence? (…) "There is such a thing as hold. But there are also women whom power makes hard work." referring to the Weinstein affair: "The starlet who goes to a famous producer and says 'I want to be a star', and the other one says 'okay, but you're having sex'. If she sleeps, it's not rape, it's a sofa promotion. And I would add that not to consider this is to insult all women who have the courage to say no. "
"I whistled a few girls … But it costs 90 bucks ?!"
In 2018, the subject of sexist outrage had been a measure that Marlene Schiappa had made a fight against. At that time, for Eric Dupond-Moretti, the government "screw up completely" ; "It is up to everyone's education, but basically, does the state have a vocation to regulate that? I do not believe. That the state inflicts an offense, it's 90 euros for whistling, we're completely kidding. " He also came back to the fact that he had already hissed a few women when he was "younger" : "So I whistled a few girls walking through … But it costs 90 bucks? Decency should rule that, not the law. The law can't interfere in this." was he also explaining to CNews. "In my time, when a girl refused your advances, we called it a rake, nowadays we call it a misdemeanor" he also said to GQ in 2019.