Europe 1 with AFP 20:31 p.m., December 30, 2023

More than 2,500 artists, including Angèle, Louane and Médine, have signed the "counter-tribune" in response to the support of actor Gérard Depardieu, who has been widely criticized after the broadcast of images in which he multiplies misogynistic and insulting remarks towards women, its initiators said on Saturday.

In addition to these two singers and this rapper, the "counter-tribune" was signed by actress Corinne Masiero and comedian Guillaume Meurice, according to the collective Cerveaux non disponibles, which launched it on Friday.

This text responds to an op-ed by the pro-Depardieu camp calling for "not to erase" the former icon of French cinema, published on Christmas Day in Le Figaro, as well as to the remarks of Emmanuel Macron, who denounced on December 20 a "manhunt" against the 75-year-old actor, indicted for rape since 2020 following a complaint by an actress in her twenties, Charlotte Arnould.

Subject to three complaints

"This op-ed and Macron's defense are so many spittles in the face of Gérard Depardieu's victims, but also of all the victims of sexist and sexual violence," the signatories of the "counter-op-ed" said. "It's a sinister and perfect illustration of the world before that refuses to let things change," they argue.

>> ALSO READ – Feminists denounce Emmanuel Macron's support for Gérard Depardieu

Gérard Depardieu, who fell from his pedestal after the release of images in early December in which he made a series of misogynistic remarks, is dividing the world of cinema and beyond.

The unease is amplified by the fact that several of the 60 or so personalities who signed the op-ed have since distanced themselves, including Carole Bouquet, Nadine Trintignant and Gérard Darmon.

Reversals of fortunes

An almost unknown comedian, Yannis Ezziadi, a columnist for the ultra-conservative magazine Causeur and close to Julie Depardieu, the actor's daughter, is at the initiative. He was described in an investigation by Le Monde as "close to the identitarian and reactionary spheres".

>> ALSO READ – Gérard Depardieu is "shame on France", for the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak

On Saturday, actor Charles Berling said on Instagram that he did not subscribe to "the whole of this op-ed" and fought "on a daily basis against the far-right ideas carried by its author".

"I regret to be associated with the initiator of this op-ed, whose political commitment I was unaware of," director Josée Dayan also wrote in a statement, while specifying that she would not withdraw her signature because she "remains attached to the presumption of innocence."