The former Minister of the Interior was appointed in December to a committee on the social responsibility of the ultra-fast-fashion company, regularly criticized for its environmental impact and its working conditions.
Published on 12/01/2025 17:14
Updated on 12/01/2025 17:26
Reading time: 2min
A nomination which created controversy. In an interview with La Tribune Sundaypublished Sunday January 12, former minister Christophe Castaner reacted to his controversial appointment to a regional committee of the ultra-fast-fashion company Shein. The Asian retail giant is regularly singled out for its environmental impact and the working conditions of its employees. “Shein has experienced rapid growth” and has “understood that it was his responsibility, as an important actor, to take virtuous initiatives”justified the former Minister of the Interior.
Shein announced on December 6 the establishment of strategic committees intended to support it in its approach to social responsibility. The first three members of this first regional committee, intended to advise the group in the Europe, Africa, Middle East zone, are three French: Christophe Castaner, as well as the former Secretary of State for Victims’ Rights, Nicole Guedj , and the former boss of the French insurance federation Bernard Spitz.
“Some people think that I am stupid enough to only have the ability to have an address book. It is a contempt that, because we come from politics and move into the private, we would not be able to do things”Christophe Castaner defended himself to the weekly.
“The commitment of these public figures to a company whose environmental and social impacts are unanimously denounced constitutes an alarming signal at a time when concrete measures are expected to counter the excesses of ultra-fast fashion”had castigated the French women’s ready-to-wear federation after these appointments.
