Parisians have demanded plans to name a new Metro station after Serge Gainsbourg be scrapped over allegations the crooner was a violent “misogynist” who “sang the praises of incest”.
Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for authorities to reverse their decision to honour the singer at the stop in the French capital’s north-eastern suburbs.
Gainsbourg was famed for a string of hits with British wife Jane Birkin, notably the 1969 scandal-struck Je t’aime, moi non plus, which was denounced by the Pope and banned by the BBC for including a simulated female orgasm.
He also wrote Le poinçonneur des Lilas, a song about a depressed Metro ticket collector who dreamed of light at the end of the tunnel.
As a result, Paris public transport opted to name the new Metro stop near Les Lilas after him.
However, the decision has appalled a group of feminists, who say it is tantamount to “spitting in the face” of victims of incest and sexual abuse.
“Serge Gainsbourg’s violence towards women and his paedo-criminal and even incestuous tendencies (to name but a few) are public knowledge, and we are outraged that he should be honoured in the Paris Metro,” reads the petition, which has so far been signed by 3,500 people.