Overview
- In a Brut interview published Monday, Brigitte Macron said she was “sorry if I hurt women victims,” described the remarks as private, and said she does not regret speaking.
- She referred to feminist demonstrators as “stupid bitches” in a backstage exchange at Ary Abittan’s Paris show, saying she was trying to reassure him and did not realize she was being filmed.
- Her office said she aimed to calm the performer and was not attacking a cause, while denouncing what it described as the protesters’ radical methods.
- The leaked video prompted online blowback, with #SalesConnes trending and the coalition Grève Féministe demanding a public apology that she has now issued.
- Activists targeted Abittan over a 2021 rape allegation that investigators dropped, a decision upheld on appeal in January, highlighting France’s ongoing tensions over #MeToo and cultural impunity.