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| French minister sorry for 'inappropriate' gesture to journalist | French minister sorry for 'inappropriate' gesture to journalist |
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| The French finance minister, Michel Sapin, has admitted to behaving inappropriately towards a female journalist, days after a sex scandal forced the resignation of the vice-president of the lower house of parliament. | The French finance minister, Michel Sapin, has admitted to behaving inappropriately towards a female journalist, days after a sex scandal forced the resignation of the vice-president of the lower house of parliament. |
| Sapin said he was sorry about what he did but insisted it should not be “confused with the seriousness of harassment or sexual assault”. | Sapin said he was sorry about what he did but insisted it should not be “confused with the seriousness of harassment or sexual assault”. |
| “During a trip to Davos in January 2015, amid about 20 people, I made a comment to a journalist about her clothing and put my hand on her back,” Sapin said, in a statement that partly denied what French journalists wrote in a recent book about what happened at the World Economic Forum. | “During a trip to Davos in January 2015, amid about 20 people, I made a comment to a journalist about her clothing and put my hand on her back,” Sapin said, in a statement that partly denied what French journalists wrote in a recent book about what happened at the World Economic Forum. |
| “There was no aggressive or sexual intent in my conduct but the mere fact that the person was shocked shows that those words and this gesture were inappropriate, and I was, and still am, sorry,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. | “There was no aggressive or sexual intent in my conduct but the mere fact that the person was shocked shows that those words and this gesture were inappropriate, and I was, and still am, sorry,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. |
| Sapin, one of Socialist president François Hollande’s closest backers, said the journalist immediately asked to talk to him and he apologised to her. | Sapin, one of Socialist president François Hollande’s closest backers, said the journalist immediately asked to talk to him and he apologised to her. |
| Hundreds of female French politicians on Tuesday denounced sexual harassment in the corridors of power and what they called a Mafia-style code of silence that lets it go unpunished, a day after the senior MP Denis Baupin quit his post as vice-president of France’s national assembly after being accused of harassment. | |
| Baupin denies any wrongdoing. | Baupin denies any wrongdoing. |
| Sapin said that “in the current circumstances” he felt he had to issue the statement. | Sapin said that “in the current circumstances” he felt he had to issue the statement. |
| Five years ago, when a sex scandal forced Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign from his post of International Monetary Fund chief, the case unleashed a soul-searching debate within France about sexual abuse that goes undeclared or undetected in the upper echelons of power. | Five years ago, when a sex scandal forced Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign from his post of International Monetary Fund chief, the case unleashed a soul-searching debate within France about sexual abuse that goes undeclared or undetected in the upper echelons of power. |