Brigitte Macron faces lawsuit after being filmed using sexist slur at Paris theatre | France
Brigitte Macron is fielding a legal complaint from multiple organisations, including women’s rights groups, after she was filmed saying feminist protesters at a theater performance in Paris were “stupid bitches”.
This week more than 300 women, specifically 343 women, a historically symbolic number in French feminism, filed complaints against the French First Lady for public insult.
A video shot last week showed Macron backstage at the Folies Bergère Theater in Paris arguing with French actor and comedian Ary Abittan, who has previously been accused of rape. She was attending the show with her daughter and some friends. The other night feminist campaigners chanted “Abittan, rapist!” He interrupted the demonstration by shouting.
Macron, 72, asked Abittan how he felt. When he said he was afraid, he talked about the protesters as follows:“sale cones” (stupid bitches) and said if they show up again “we will throw them out”.
Juliette Chapelle, a lawyer for the feminist groups that filed the lawsuit, told France Inter radio: “She is the First Lady of France, her words matter.”
Macron “appears to be very interested in women’s causes, but in reality we can say that there is a disconnect between his public speeches and what he actually thinks,” Chapelle said.
Magistrates ended the investigation into the 2021 rape allegation against Abittan in 2024 due to lack of evidence to carry it to trial. This decision was upheld on appeal in January this year.
Feminist campaign group Nous Toutes (“All of Us”), which took part in the theater protest, said its activists blocked Abittan’s show to protest what it described as a “culture of impunity” regarding sexual violence in France.
“I apologize if I harmed female victims,” Macron told media outlet Brut this week, describing the videotaped statements as “private” comments.
But she added: “I cannot regret them. True, I am the president’s wife, but first of all I am myself. So when I am alone I can let myself go in a way that is completely inappropriate.”
Feminist groups that have filed legal complaints include Les Tricoteuses Hystériques (Hysterical Knitters), founded in 2024 during France’s biggest rape trial, in which dozens of men were found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot, who was drugged by her ex-husband. A defense attorney in that case called the women outside “hysterical” and “trichotous” and likened them to women knitting and watching the guillotine fall during the French Revolution.
The number of 343 complainants indicates that: 1971 petition to legalize abortion 343 women said they terminated their pregnancies.
Many celebrities supported the feminist campaigners insulted by Macron by adopting the insult with the hashtag #salesconnes. Actor and director Judith Godrèche, a leading voice of the #MeToo movement in France, filed a complaint against two film directors for sexually assaulting her in her youth, posting on social media: “Me too – I too am a salle conne (dirty, stupid bitch) and I support the others.”
