cnn
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After appearing on the front cover of Playboy magazine, French government minister Marlene Schiappa has come under attack from members of her own party.
Schiappa, who has been a minister in the government since 2017, appeared on the cover of the magazine with a 12-page interview she gave on women’s and LGBT rights. Schiappa, who is the current Minister of Social Economy and French Federations, was photographed for the cover wearing a white dress.
Schiappa has been a long-time advocate for women’s rights and was appointed as the country’s first gender equality minister in 2017. In this role, he successfully spearheaded a new sexual harassment law that allows men who harass, harass or stalk women on the street to be fined on the spot.
His appearance has been criticized by political allies, including French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
CNN affiliate BFMTV reported Saturday, citing a source close to the prime minister, that Bourne slammed Schiappa over the cover, saying it was “not appropriate, especially during this period.”
France is currently grappling with a political and social crisis over French President Emmanuel Macron’s move to push through controversial pension reforms despite widespread public opposition.
“We are in the middle of a social crisis, there is an issue of policing, people are between life and death, and I feel like I am behind a gray curtain,” Sandrine Rousseau, a Green Party politician and fellow women’s rights activist, told BFMTV on Friday.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the French politician who came third in the 2022 presidential elections, criticized both Schiappa’s appearance and French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to grant an interview this week to the children’s magazine, Pif Gazette.
“In a country where the president expresses himself in puff and his ministers in playboy, the problem will be the opposition. France is going off the rails,” Mélenchon tweeted on Saturday.
Schiappa responded to his critics in a tweet on Saturday, saying, “Defending women’s right to have control over their bodies, he is everywhere and all the time. In France, women are free. With all due respect to the detractors and hypocrites.”
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin defended Schiappa during an interview with French news channel CNews on Sunday, calling her a “woman of character.”
He said, “I wanted to say that Marlene Schiappa is a courageous female politician who has her own character and who has her own style that is not mine, but I respect her.”
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