Top Macron Minister Marlène Schiappa appeared on the cover of Playboy, drawing criticism even from within her own party as France continues to get rocked by protests.
Schiappa, 40, said she used the Playboy platform to speak up about about a range of issues such as women’s rights and climate change.
The magazine hasn’t been published yet, but the cover has been leaked, which shows Schiappa showing plenty of cleavage while wearing a bow-tied dress with her legs spread and hands partially blocking her crotch. However, Schiappa didn’t pose nude.
After receiving widespread backlash — including from within her own party — Schiappa defended her choice to appear in the magazine.
“Defending the right of women to dispose of their bodies is everywhere and all the time. In France, women are free,” she said.
“With all due respect to the backsliders and the hypocrites.”
Schiappa is France’s Minister of Social Economy and French associations.
The French version of the magazine features a 12-page interview.
Her boss, Prime Minister Borne, said she didn’t clear the decision in advance. Borne further called Schiappa’s decision “inappropriate.”
Another colleague, Ludovic Mendes of Moselle, said he understood supporting women’s rights but Playboy isn’t the right platform.
“There are other ways to do it,” he said.
Opposition called the stunt a distraction from the ongoing mass protests that have rocked France since January.
Millions of French citizens have taken to the streets in protest of Macron’s executive order that mandates the country’s retirement age rise by two years from 62 to 64.
Last week, a French woman was arrested for a Facebook post she made where she called President Emmanuel Macron “filth.”
