"Isn't it hot enough to go topless?"

The journalists' societies (SDJ) of several 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, he wondered why "none of the journalists who interviewed me were topless." "Wasn't it warm enough?" asked Eric Dupont-Moretti.

On Monday, the Minister of Justice traveled to Aurillac, near central France, to review the damage caused to a court during a demonstration held over the weekend by a large number of topless women in support of a woman called Marina, who was prosecuted. for "sexual exhibition" after walking around the city topless. The latter explained to the local press that she was "super hot" and she wanted to be "like half the men" topless.

Statements "taken out of context"

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 burned down from top to bottom, [...] statements have been taken out of context to attribute intentions that are not his".

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."

Criticisms of the journalistic sector

In a statement published on Tuesday on Wasn't it hot enough?

These statements, addressed at the end of a press conference "to several journalists, including two editorial colleagues," 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 deplores "a controversy that has no reason to exist," his entourage told AFP, invoking his "total" determination to "fight against all types 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 the staff of Libération criticized the "shocking" statements, demonstrating their "support for the attacked sisters", as did the SDJ of Mediapart and the society of editors of Le Monde.

“Inappropriate comments, inappropriate minister,” criticized the head of the PS, Olivier Faure. "Let him manage his libido in places other than the government," he added.

"What delicacy. What eloquence. What bravery. What a man. What a minister," joked feminist activist Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women's Foundation.