French President Emmanuel Macron assures, in an interview on Wednesday, that there was “no complacency” towards the actor Gérard Depardieu, affirming to have “never defended an aggressor in the face of victims “.
Gérard Depardieu will be tried in October in Paris for sexual assault on two women during filming in 2021. He has also been indicted since 2020 for rape and sexual assault on a young actress, Charlotte Arnould. Several other complaints have been filed against the 75-year-old actor, who denies the facts with which he is accused.
At the end of December, before the actor was summoned to court, Emmanuel Macron defended Gérard Depardieu, hailing a “huge actor” who “makes France proud”, and denouncing “a manhunt”.
“There is no complacency on my part,” assured the President of the Republic in the magazine Shewhere he addresses several topics considered important to women.
“Just a desire to respect our principles, such as the presumption of innocence. These same principles which will allow justice to rule next October and that is a good thing,” he added.
The Head of State assured that he had “deep respect, goodwill and great confidence for and in the words of women” and said he was “uncompromising on the issue of rape, domination, this culture of brutality.”
“My priority has always been the protection of victims, and this is also the case for the Depardieu affair,” he continued.
Hailing “the courage” of actresses Judith Godrèche, Juliette Binoche and Isild le Besco, who denounced sexual violence in the cinema industry, Emmanuel Macron underlines that “the highlighting of the truth is done through free speech, through work of journalists, by the work of investigators. Justice then, alone, establishes guilt,” he added.
Emmanuel Macron also recalled his intention to change the definition of rape in France by integrating the notion of consent. Parliamentarians are “working on the subject with the Minister of Justice so that a proposed text can see the light of day by the end of the year,” he said.
Carried by the #MeToo shock wave, voices have been raised for several months for France to integrate the notion of consent into its law, like other European countries.
The #MeToo movement “reassured me, made me doubt, revealed things to me,” he admitted.