The journalists' associations (SDJ) of various media outlets, including BFMTV and TF1, have condemned "inappropriate" and "sexist" statements by the French Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, who, at the end of a press conference last Monday, she wondered why "none of the journalists who interviewed me were topless." "Wasn't it hot enough?" asked Eric Dupont-Moretti.
On Monday, the Minister of Justice traveled to Aurillac, near central France, to review the damage caused to a courthouse during a demonstration held at the weekend by a large number of topless women in support of a woman named Marina, on trial for "sexual display" after walking around town topless. The latter explained to the local press that she was "super hot" and she wanted to be "like half the men" topless.
For his part, Dupond-Moretti regretted that his statements had been "taken out of their context." "The minister regrets that at a time when a court almost caught fire from top to bottom, [...] some statements have been taken out of context to attribute intentions that are not his own."
His environment also wanted to clarify how the scene developed. According to him, the Minister first observed that the journalists were not "topless", "which means that respect for the law was the norm". Then someone in the room asked, "Maybe it wasn't hot enough?" To which the minister replied: "Wasn't it hot enough? You should say that, you're a man."
In a statement posted Tuesday on X (ex Twitter), the BFMTV SDJ criticized Eric Dupond-Moretti for the following statements: "I note that among the journalists who questioned me, none was in front of me with a bare chest. eh. Wasn't it hot enough?
These statements, addressed at the end of a press conference "to various journalists, including two colleagues from the editorial office", are "inappropriate", the SDJ was outraged.
During the trial, TF1's SDJ condemned these "sexist comments" made in front of his "film crew", calling them "unacceptable", even "jokingly", in the mouth of a minister.
For his part, Moretti deplored "a controversy that has no reason to exist," his entourage told AFP, invoking his "total" determination to "fight against all kinds of sexual and sexist violence."
BFMTV's SDJ's press release sparked a number of reactions on X, in the press and beyond.
The society of journalists and Libération staff criticized the "shocking" statements, demonstrating their "support for the attacked sisters", as did the Mediapart SDJ and the Le Monde publishers society.
"Inappropriate comments, inappropriate minister," criticized the head of the PS, Olivier Faure. "Let her manage her libido in places other than the government," he added.
"What delicacy. What eloquence. What courage. What a man. What a minister," joked feminist activist Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women's Foundation.
