2023-12-20 21:47:00
President Emmanuel Macron judged it premature on Wednesday to talk regarding a procedure which might remove the Legion of Honor from Gérard Depardieu (archives). KEYSTONE/AP/Thibault Camus sda-ats
This content was published on December 20, 2023 – 10:47 p.m. December 20, 2023 – 10:47 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS)
French President Emmanuel Macron defended Gérard Depardieu on Wednesday, denouncing a “manhunt”, following the broadcast of a shock TV documentary on the actor of whom he said he was “a great admirer”.
Emmanuel Macron contradicted the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak who had announced on the same channel Friday that a “disciplinary procedure” would be initiated by the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honor once morest the actor, targeted by two complaints in France for rape and sexual assault, and indicted (charged) in one of the two cases. The actor denies these accusations.
“There is one thing you will never see me in, and that is manhunts. I hate that,” replied the head of state on the France5 television channel.
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.
“Shame on France”
In the same program, “C à vous”, Rima Abdul Malak estimated on Friday that the actor’s comments reported in the report “Complement of investigation” are “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 “advanced” by speaking regarding a procedure which might remove the actor’s distinction.
“There are sometimes outbursts over comments made. I am wary of the context,” he insisted. And added: “The Legion of Honor is an Order of which I am in fact the grand master, which is not there to preach morality”.
“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 underlined the Head of State.
“The Age of Suspicion”
And to conclude: “you can accuse someone, there may be victims, but there is also a presumption of innocence that exists”, otherwise fearing falling into “the era of suspicion”.
Olivier Faure, the head of the Socialist Party, criticized these comments on his social networks: “Violence once morest 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 once more an insult to the movement to free the speech of victims of sexual violence,” the environmentalist MP Sandrine Rousseau also attacked on her networks.
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