{{This week conservative French lawmaker Phillipe Le Ray was docked one-quarter of his monthly parliamentary salary for clucking like a chicken while Green Party MP Véronique Massonneau addressed the National Assembly on the subject of reforming France’s pensions system.}}
Sadly, it was not an isolated sexist episode by a rogue UMP lawmaker.
It was just the latest outburst that has made France’s National Assembly appear more like a construction worksite than le peuple’s repository of liberty, equality and fraternity.
In July 2012, Housing Minister Cécile Duflot became the target of hooting by conservative MPs as she took the microphone to answer questions about a Paris infrastructure project wearing, get this… a floral dress. The completely unassuming garment sparked a surprising chorus of cat-calls and whistling.
And in February, UMP lawmakers began an ugly tirade against National Assembly Vice-President Laurence Dumont because she dared interrupt the minority UMP leader Christian Jacob. Dumont’s fellow Socialist MPs accused the UMP bench of getting irritated because it was a woman who was calling the shots that day.
In view of those earlier incidents, Le Ray’s inappropriate poultry imitation immediately set off alarms in the French press. “New sexist quack at the Assembly” was one of the headlines.
Woman lawmakers did not take this latest attack lightly.
Government spokesman and Women’s Rights Ministry Najat Vallaud-Belkacem lamented that “some people struggle to maintain composure after one-too-many bottles of wine with their lunch,” while Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti played a more pessimistic tune: “A leopard can’t change its spots”.
In a show of solidarity and force, women MPs delayed their entrance to Wednesday afternoon’s parliamentary session. They were applauded by left-wing lawmakers as they marched in together a few minutes later, with Massonneau leading at the head of the column.
Angered by the women’s “theatrics,” the opposition UMP group abandoned the chamber.
france24
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