Since 2017 and the revelations about predatory film producer Harvey Weinstein, the wave that has liberated the expression of women victims of sexist and sexual violence has also shaken up the way societies, in France as elsewhere, view these acts and their perpetrators, whether anonymous or famous. Because their lives are scrutinized by public opinion as a whole and because their behavior is considered emblematic, artists have fueled debate, often scandal and sometimes progress.

That's why television channel France 2's December 7 broadcast of footage of Gérard Depardieu shot five years earlier, in which the actor makes demeaning remarks about women and a young girl, caused a stir in the country, even before French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the issue. For years now, the gulf has been widening between the brilliant actor, French figure and international star and the man under investigation in 2020 for rape and sexual assault, and the target of multiple accusations about his behavior on film sets.

By declaring that the actor "makes France proud" on France 5 on December 20, Macron has nonetheless turned the Depardieu affair into a weapon of political combat and committed a serious error. How can the man who claims to have made violence against women and equality between women and men "the two great causes of [his] two terms in office" –without a word for those who claim to be the actor's victims – associate such detestable and unworthy behavior with the country he embodies as head of state?

The presumption of innocence, which Macron invoked, is obviously a principle to be defended. And the fact that Depardieu has "delivered some of the most beautiful texts" is indisputable. But to proclaim pride in a man who regularly flaunts his contempt for France and his admiration for Vladimir Putin, boasts of his tax exemptions and claims to be "still Russian" despite the war against Ukraine is aberrant.

Dark omen

We all know the president's taste for counterpoint, "disruption" and en même temps (a refrain commonly used for positioning himself as a unifying centrist). A few days after his defense of an immigration law inspired by the far right, his praise of Depardieu appears above all as a further nod to the most reactionary part of public opinion, particularly to men who consider women's speech as an intolerable challenge to their domination. He is thus pledging his support to voters who, in their detestation of "woke culture," fear that their supposed superiority in terms of identity, race or sex will be called into question.

In so doing, Macron is allowing the extreme right to score additional points in the cultural arena. By appearing to lend credence to the refuted theory that the damning report on Depardieu had been manipulated, and by finding himself trapped by a maneuver designed to turn the actor's defense into a reactionary banner (illustrated by the open letter from cinema personalities written by an activist close to identitarian spheres), Macron is shifting positions. He is moving further away, not only from the persona open to diversity and societal progress that he has claimed to embody, but also from his role as a "bulwark" against the far right, a decisive factor in his two elections. It's a gloomy omen as he approaches his "rendezvous with the nation" announced for January 2024