Since December 13, François Bayrou has been appointed Prime Minister, after the resignation of the Barnier government. Candidate three times for a presidential election, he accessed the position he had coveted for some time, political experts will say. The founder of Modem is therefore in the spotlight and is tackling the task more than ever, already facing his first serious crisis with the catastrophic situation of the overseas department Mayotte, ravaged by cyclone Chido. At 73 years old, the politician has his work cut out for him in a divided France and his appointment is inevitably an opportunity to get back on his feet. There are those about the remarks, not tender, that he made in the past about Emmanuel Macron, but not only that. His speech on women provoked many reactions as the magazine recently recalled ELLE.
We have to go back to 2012 to find François Bayrou, this time in the middle of the presidential campaign. He was then the guest of a forum organized by ELLE magazine and was questioned about separate hours for women in municipal swimming pools. The former Minister of National Education from 1993 to 1997 then explained, in front of an audience mainly made up of students: “I think there are women who, because age has made them what they are…“Booed by the audience, he clarified, asking the audience not to laugh:”I know women who have a physique… You are all young, but I I know women who are heavier than others and who don't want to have men looking at them in a swimming pool..” Assuming his ideas, he adds: “Mwhere I have known very close people in my life, women who weighed more than 100 kilos. And they loved to swim.”
A sequence that the show Daily on TMC called back last October, leaving today's guest, swimmer Léon Marchand, stunned.
Has the François Bayrou of 2012 evolved on the question of women?
The journalists of ELLE magazine then questioned the ideas of François Bayrou twelve years later. One of his relatives explains: “Don't see Francis as a monolith. He became aware of societal developments. And unlike many others, he forced himself to evolve, like on women's rights for example.“Implied, he comes from the old world, where the place of women has evolved, but he has changed, particularly with the now deceased politician, Marielle de Sarnez.
François Bayrou campaigned for the creation of a Ministry of Equality between women and men, called for a “framework law against violence against women“, proposed to generalize the “creation of shelters for women victims of domestic violence“and wish a”emergency procedure” to allow these same women to have the means (financial in particular) to leave their homes. At his side for fifty years, we can easily imagine that his wife and mother of their six children Élisabeth Perlant known as “Babeth”, professor of literature, has influenced François Bayrou's view of women and their condition, a state of mind that is more ready than ever now that he is at the head of the executive…
