Audience: A few days ago, you judged that this presidential campaign is not serious. Why ?
Marlene Schiappa: To be picked up by the media, candidates make announcements that are not at the level of the head of state. This degrades the presidential function.
You are the minister with the most media coverage, from political broadcasts to Tous en cuisine. Nothing is forbidden?
One cannot deplore the abstention and despise certain readers who are not true citizens. You have to talk to everyone, whether it’s Valeurs Actuelles, L’Humanité or Public. I was the first minister to go to Cyril Hanouna. Since then, my colleagues have been queuing to get there!
What do you remember from the five-year term?
There was a before and after on domestic violence. The Grenelle of domestic violence has changed things. To make it possible to lodge a complaint, we train the police better, we seize weapons when the violent spouse has them, we create the possibility of giving evidence outside the police station… This work is bearing fruit.
In five years, you have been widely criticized. The Atlantico site called you “queen of sluts” by evoking the erotic novels that you would have written under a pseudonym. How do we manage?
You never get used to violence. I will remember this moment when forty Yellow Vests came to my house at midnight while we were sleeping. They started shouting “Schiappa bitch! We’re going to kill you! Get off!” knocking on the door and windows of the building. My daughters were in tears. It’s traumatic! Even if we receive a lot of support.
You say that sexist violence broke into your life very early…
Yes, I remember the first street harassment I suffered. I was 13 years old, and a guy in a suit and tie follows me saying: “Well then, darling, you have to put on a bra!” At this age, we do not understand. As a child, I had short hair, I played football… But as a teenager, you realize that you are a girl, especially in the eyes of others, by being treated differently from a boy!
“Notoriety shakes up the life of a couple”
Was the attack physical?
Yes. In a metro station, a man pinned me against the wall and then tried to undo my pants. Fortunately, I remembered my father’s advice: “If a guy attacks you, put a knee between his legs”. What I did, before I fled. Another day, in an elevator, a man followed me and began to masturbate. And yet, like many women, I only tell what is sayable: more serious things have happened to me, which I am silent about.
Do you already educate your daughters, aged 10 and 15, about these risks?
May be too much. It is difficult to know how to preserve them, without overprotecting them.
You had your first child early, at 23, but you were already thinking about it as a teenager!
Being a mother is the thing that defines me. I do not reduce women to motherhood but, for me, it was essential. As a child, I made lists of first names for my future children.
“Last year, I had a hard time coping with my miscarriage”
How to reconcile the lives of mother and minister?
I try to make time for quality. I go home to dinner with them, even if it means going out to work afterwards. But if I manage to juggle, it’s because their father is very committed!
And married life?
Notoriety shakes up habits. My husband comes from the northern districts of Marseille. Me, I grew up in a city of Belleville, in a family of teachers. We are not used to the gilding of the Republic! Being exposed was a shock to our families.
Last year, you had a miscarriage. How do we manage this intimate pain by being publicized?
I stayed three weeks in bed at home, from where I was able to telecommute. Already, physically, we are a little HS because of the bleeding. And psychologically, it hit me hard and I had a hard time coping with it. I was lucky to be very supported.
Your father, a communist historian, told you “not to take yourself too much for Marlène Schiappa”. What gives?
The public person is not the same as in the private. People find it hard to believe, but I’m quite reserved, actually.
It is hard to defend a Government when one does not agree?
I’m loyal to the President, it’s non-negotiable. On the other hand, when the Government did not want the law on child bereavement, granting days to a parent after the death of a child, I wrote to the President and to Brigitte Macron that it turned my stomach. The next day, the Government reviewed its copy. I was satisfied, because I was ready to go so far as to be fired to defend my values: it was a matter of principle.
What do you think of Emmanuel Macron who “fucks the unvaccinated”? Is it worthy of a democracy?
His idea is to protect everyone. I’m coming out of a somewhat harsh Covid: it’s a mess, this virus! And people died from it in very difficult conditions. The President is concerned about these situations, and he tries at all costs to protect everyone.
This lack of respect does not seem to you to be a com error?
No.
During these five years, are there things that you regret having said?
I made mistakes. That said, it’s a paradox: we want to renew the old political staff, but we don’t like the natural. It doesn’t matter, I remain myself.
Domestic violence on the rise
If Marlène Schiappa defends the Government’s record, the figures communicated by the Ministry of the Interior attest that in 2020, a 10% increase in domestic violence was recorded. About 87% of the victims are women, i.e. a number of 139,200. An increase which can undoubtedly be attributed to the closed doors of successive quarantines: during the second confinement, reports of domestic violence on the dedicated government platform had increased. by 60%.
Key dates
1. November 18, 1982
Born in Paris, of very left-wing teacher parents. Marlène Schiappa has two sisters to whom she is very close, Carla and Angela.
2. 2006
After a brief first marriage, she married Cédric Bruguière, who is HRD. Together they have two daughters, 10 and 15.
3. 2017
Elected from Le Mans, the feminist is committed to Emmanuel Macron, of which she will first be the Secretary of State for Gender Equality.
4. February 2022
She is the subject of a first biography, La Vraie Marlène, by journalist Florian Anselme (Robert Laffont). An exciting investigation into this “inconvenient minister”.
See also: After the announcement of the death of Elizabeth II, finally good news from Buckingham Palace!
Interview by Maëlle Brun