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CRIME

France targets incest for first time in national campaign

The French government launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of sexual violence against children on Tuesday, for the first time mentioning incest which has been a taboo subject in public debate.

France targets incest for first time in national campaign
A child listens to her teacher in France in 2019 (Photo by Martin BUREAU / AFP)

Messages and videos will be posted on social media and placed in media, billboards and movie theatres. A TV campaign will be broadcast at half-time during a France match at the ongoing Rugby World Cup.

Charlotte Caubel, junior minister in charge of child issues, said she had wanted a hard-hitting campaign similar to those on the  prevention of road deaths that would “punch our fellow citizens in the gut”.

“It’s the first time that the government uses the word ‘incest’ in a campaign, the first time it mentions sexual violence inside families,” she told AFP.

The previous government campaign against sexual violence targeting children dates back to 2002.

‘Everybody’s fight’

An estimated 160,000 children are victims of sexual abuse in France every year, while associations say that one in every 10 adults in France has experienced incest.

“This means you meet people every day who were victims of incest or who committed incest,” Caubel said.

By the end of the campaign “nobody will be able to say ‘I didn’t know'”, she said. “This must become everybody’s fight.”

Incest in France — defined as sexual relations of a person with a parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling or half-sibling — is legal as long as it occurs between consenting adults.

But in case of rape or sexual abuse committed against a minor, courts typically lengthen prison terms if the assault was also incestuous.

Incest is legal in many parts of the world, including several European countries, but illegal in the United Kingdom, most US states, and Australia.

French documentary film makers, writers and actors have recently come out against what they say has been a taboo in France, where incest has often been considered a private family matter.

French actor Emmanuelle Beart was a victim of incest as a child, she said in a documentary to air later this month.

Beart, who has starred in dozens of films and TV productions over the past 50 years, does not identify her attacker in the documentary called “Such a resounding silence”, which includes the stories of four incest victims, as well as Beart’s own contribution.

‘A public problem’

A TV production called “Eyes wide shut” about incest will be broadcast on France’s biggest TV channel TF1 in October.

Also in October a movie, “Consent”, based on the book by publisher Vanessa Springora about how she was groomed by writer Gabriel Matzneff while aged 14, is set for release.

A novel by Neige Sinno, “Triste tigre” (“Sad Tiger”), about the author’s childhood rape by her stepfather, was released this year to strong reviews and picked up a coveted literary prize awarded by Le Monde newspaper.

Edouard Durand, a judge and co-president of the Ciivise association against sexual violence targeting children, called the government’s campaign “brave” and praised it for not downplaying the suffering of children.

He also said it “is crucial that in this campaign the government says that incest exists, and that’s it’s a public problem, not a private one,” he told AFP.

The government has said it will boost funding to support groups helping abused children, while French parliament has begun examining a draft law brought by Socialist lawmaker Isabelle Santiago which would strip anyone found guilty of abusing their child of their parental authority.

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POLITICS

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

President Emmanuel Macron warned that the policies of his far-right and hard-left opponents could lead to ‘civil war’, as France prepared for its most divisive election in decades.

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

French politics were plunged into turmoil when Macron called snap legislative elections after his centrist party was trounced by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in a European vote earlier this month.

Weekend polls suggested the RN would win 35-36 percent in the first round on Sunday, ahead of a left-wing alliance on 27-29.5 percent and Macron’s centrists in third on 19.5-22 percent.

A second round of voting will follow on July 7th in constituencies where no candidate takes more than 50 percent in the first round.

Speaking on the podcast Generation Do It Yourself, Macron, 46, denounced both the RN as well as the hard-left France Unbowed party.

He said the far-right “divides and pushes towards civil war”, while the hard-left La France Insoumise, which is part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, proposes “a form of communitarianism”, adding that “civil war follows on from that, too”.

Reacting to Macron’s comments, far-right leader Jordan Bardella told French news outlet M6: “A President of the Republic should not say that. I want to re-establish security for all French people.”

Bardella, the RN’s 28-year-old president, earlier Monday said his party was ready to govern as he pledged to curb immigration and tackle cost-of-living issues.

“In three words: we are ready,” Bardella told a news conference as he unveiled the RN’s programme.

READ ALSO What would a far-right prime minister mean for foreigners in France?

Bardella has urged voters to give the eurosceptic party an outright majority to allow it to implement its anti-immigration, law-and-order programme.

“Seven long years of Macronism has weakened the country,” he said, vowing to boost purchasing power, “restore order” and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.

He reiterated plans to tighten borders and make it harder for children born in France to foreign parents to gain citizenship.

Bardella added that the RN would focus on “realistic” measures to curb inflation, primarily by cutting energy taxes.

He also promised a disciplinary ‘big bang’ in schools, including a ban on mobile phones and trialling the introduction of school uniforms, a proposal previously put forward by Macron.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of Macron’s Renaissance party poured scorn on the RN’s economic programme, telling Europe 1 radio the country was “headed straight for disaster” in the event of an RN victory.

On Tuesday, Attal will go head-to-head with Bardella and the leftist Manuel Bompard in a TV debate.

On foreign policy, Bardella said the RN opposed sending French troops and long-range missiles to Ukraine – as mooted by Macron – but would continue to provide logistical and material support.

He added that his party, which had close ties to Russia before its invasion of Ukraine, would be “extremely vigilant” in the face of Moscow’s attempts to interfere in French affairs.

Macron insisted that France would continue to support Ukraine over the long term as he met with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

“We will continue to mobilise to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs,” he said alongside Stoltenberg at the Elysee Palace.

The election is shaping up as a showdown between the RN and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire, which is dominated by the hard-left La France Insoumise.

Bardella claimed the RN, which mainstream parties have in the past united to block, was now the “patriotic and republican” choice faced with what he alleged was the anti-Semitism of Mélenchon’s party.

La France Insoumise, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza and refused to label the October 7th Hamas attacks as ‘terrorism’, denies the charges of anti-Semitism.

In calling an election in just three weeks Macron hoped to trip up his opponents and catch them unprepared.

But analysts have warned the move could backfire if the deeply unpopular president is forced to share power with a prime minister from an opposing party.

RN powerhouse Marine Le Pen, who is bidding to succeed Macron as president, has called on him to step aside if he loses control of parliament.

Macron has insisted he will not resign before the end of his second term in 2027 but has vowed to heed voters’ concerns.

Speaking on Monday, Macron once again defended his choice to call snap elections.

“It’s very hard. I’m aware of it, and a lot of people are angry with me,” he said on the podcast. “But I did it because there is nothing greater and fairer in a democracy than trust in the people.”

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