French politician sparks controversy for posing for Playboy during protests

A French government minister has posed for the front cover of Playboy, and the timing hasn’t gone down well with some of her fellow politicians.

Marlene Schiappa, who is the current minister for the social economy and French associations, took part in a shoot for the magazine and gave an interview highlighting women’s rights and LGBTQ+ issues.

Schiappa has been vocal in campaigning for gender equality during her time in politics and led the way on a French law banning cat-calling and the harassment of women.

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The Playboy shoot has sparked negative reaction among her peers, partly due to the timing. France is currently experiencing riots and widespread unrest following Emmanual Macron’s reforms to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Some have called the recent shoot ‘disrespectful’.

Green MP Sandrine Rousseau told TV channel BFM: “Where is the respect for the French people?

“People who are going to have to work for two years more, who are demonstrating, who are losing days of salary, who aren’t managing to eat because of inflation.

“Women’s bodies should be able to be exposed anywhere, I don’t have a problem with that, but there’s a social context.”

French prime minister Elisabeth Born has also reportedly told Schiappa that the cover is “not at all appropriate”.

The politician is being criticised over the timing over the shootGetty Images

Politicians Jean Luc Mélenchon also criticised Ms Schiappa’s appearance in the publication and Macron giving an interview to children’s magazine Pif Gadget.

On Saturday night he tweeted: “In a country where the President expresses himself in Pif and his minister in Playboy, the problem would be the opposition. France is going off the rails.”

Defending herself in a post on Twitter on Saturday night, Schiappa said: “Defending the right of women to dispose of their bodies is everywhere and all the time.

“In France, women are free. With all due respect to the backsliders and the hypocrites.”

It comes as thousands of French people have taken to the streets in recent weeks over the pension reforms which have caused violent outbursts and strikes.

The French government claim that raising the retirement age is important to ensure the pension system does not go bust.

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