First lady seen making sexist and derogatory reference to women who had disrupted theatre show by Ary Abittan
Brigitte Macron was facing criticism on Tuesday after video emerged of her using a slur to denounce feminist protesters.
The scene filmed on Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergère theatre in Paris with Ary Abittan, a French actor and humorist previously accused of rape, before a performance he was about to give. The previous night, feminist campaigners had disrupted his show with shouts of: “Abittan, rapist!”
Before Sunday’s performance, Macron asked him how he was feeling. When he said he was feeling scared, she made a derogatory and sexist reference to the women, adding: “We’ll toss them out.”
Her office said in a statement that she had been trying to calm his nerves: “As the video shows, Mrs Macron’s only intention was to reassure an artist who, in his dressing room before going on stage, had just told her: ‘I’m scared’ because his show had been disrupted the previous evening.
