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French minister Royal denies ban on cleavage

Ségolène Royal, France’s new minister for the environment has been forced to deny reports on Thursday that she had introduced some strict new rules for her staff, including a ban on women wearing low cut tops at work. However a French TV show claims to have found proof of the ban.

Published: 24 April 2014 09:09 CEST

French minister Royal denies ban on cleavage

Ségolène Royal has reportedly banned women in her ministry from wearing low cut tops at work. Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP

Royal, the ex-wife of President François Hollande was drafted into the cabinet in the recent reshuffle has wasted no time laying down the law.

According to a report by Le Point website, Royal, who they dub "the iron lady", has banned women working in her ministry from wearing tops or dresses that show too much cleavage as part of a new code of conduct aimed at improving etiquette.

Woman have been ordered to come to work wearing a respectable outfit, Le Point says quoting a source at the ministry.

When contacted by Le Point, Royal simply replied that the ban on low cut tops (interdiction des décolletés) is “part of the rules of service meant for internal use” and should not give rise to “external comments”.

However with the story dominating French news sites on Thursday morning Royal took to Twitter to rubbish the report.

"Of course I deny the ridiculous rumor concerning the banning of low cut tops in the ministry!

"The only rules laid down were in regards to a greater rigor in the use of public funds, that the French expect from us."

Je démens bien sûr la rumeur ridicule concernant l'interdiction de décolletés dans le ministère !

— Ségolène Royal (@RoyalSegolene) April 24, 2014

French TV show Le Grand Journal then visited the ministry with a hidden camera and spoke to a member of staff who confirmed the ban on the showing of cleavage.

Despite the denials the issue continued to cause a stir. When asked about the the over at the Environment Ministry, Marisol Touraine, France’s Minister for Health said that all her staff, “both men and women have a sense of the mission and always wear respectable outfits.”

But Touraine said that at certain times of the year she would accept a little leeway on what female staff wear.

“In the summer slightly lower cut tops would not be a problem for me,” she told Europe1 radio.

The news of the Royal's supposed ban naturally provoked a fair bit of reaction and mocking in the Twittersphere as well.

"Ségolène Royal arrives at her ministry this morning looking very sober," joked @AntoineLvq.

Arrivée de Ségolène Royal en toute sobriété, ce matin à son ministère. pic.twitter.com/vdcQOIiNkw

— Antoine Lvq (@Antoine_Lvq) April 24, 2014

@TheLocalFrance Aaaand so we have taken one step forward, two steps back. 🙁

— Emma Bentley (@emmabentley87) April 24, 2014

@emmabentley87 @TheLocalFrance Indeed. We ladies and our distracting boobs. How can men be expected to work when our boobs are right there?

— Judi Lembke (@JudiLembke) April 24, 2014

Le Figaro newspaper even managed to dig out an old picture of Royal wearing, what can only be described as a low cut top.

Ségolène Royal interdit le décolleté dans son ministère. http://t.co/SSJUXWtXhY via @Le_Scan pic.twitter.com/5YX1MpDBey

— Le Figaro (@Le_Figaro) April 24, 2014

The reported restrictions on women's clothing is just one of a raft of new rules by which Royal has asked her staff to abide by, claimed Le Point.

The site also said that when Royal walks around the ministry an usher accompanies her ordering staff to stand as she passes by.

Staff are also banned from smoking in the yard and in the garden in the presence of the minister.

And when Royal is having lunch in the lounge, her advisers have been asked to take a different corridor to avoid making too much noise as she eats.

She has also introduced a "co-working" scheme which means each office has to be occupied by at least two people.

The minister has so far not denied any of these rumours.

Royal, who lost the 2012 presidential race to Nicolas Sarkozy, was brought back out of the political wilderness by new Prime Minister Manuel Valls when he formed his new government earlier this month.

As a Socialist Party stalwart, Royal was unlucky not have been named in Hollande's first government after he was elected in 2012, but reports claim that his then partner Valérie Trierweiler vetoed the appointment of the mother of Hollande's four children.

With Hollande having since dumped Trierweiler after news of his secret fling with French actress Julie Gayet was exposed by Closer magazine earlier this year, the path appears to have cleared for her to be brought back in from the cold.

She is still close to the president and would give him a much needed ally in the government. Asked recently if she had considered quitting public life, Royal replied: "Never. After 30 years in politics, that would be unthinkable."

Her staff at the ministry might be wishing otherwise.

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Police intervened as dozens of students gathered on a central Paris campus of the prestigious Sciences Po university on Wednesday evening, management said.

“After discussions with management, most of them agreed to leave the premises,” university officials said in a statement to AFP, saying the protest was adding to “tensions” at the university.

But “a small group of students” refused to leave and “it was decided that the police would evacuate the site,” the statement added.

Sciences Po said it regretted that “numerous attempts” to have the students leave the premises peacefully had led nowhere.

According to the police préfecture, students had set up around 10 tents.

When members of law enforcement arrived, “50 students left on their own, 70 were evacuated calmly from 0.20am” and the police “left at 1.30am, with no incidents to report,” the police said.

The protesters demanded that Sciences Po “cut its ties with universities and companies that are complicit in the genocide in Gaza” and “end the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus,” according to witnesses.

The protest was organised by the Palestine Committee of Sciences Po.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said its activists had been “carried out of the school by more than fifty members of the security forces,” adding that “around a hundred” police officers were “also waiting for them outside”.

Sciences Po management “stubbornly refuses to engage in genuine dialogue,” the group said.

The organisers have called for “a clear condemnation of Israel’s actions by Sciences Po” and a commemorative event “in memory of the innocent people killed by Israel,” among other demands.

Separately, the Student Union of Sciences Po Paris said the decision by university officials to call in the police was “both shocking and deeply worrying” and reflected “an unprecedented authoritarian turn”.

Many top US universities have been rocked by protests in recent weeks, with some students furious over the Israel-Hamas war and ensuing humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.

The war in Gaza began with an unprecedented attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7th that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,305 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.