French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday faced accusations of siding with sexual aggressors after saying film icon Gerard Depardieu, charged with rape and facing a litany of sexual assault claims, was the target of "a manhunt".
Depardieu, who has made more than 200 films and TV series, was charged with rape in 2020 and has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women.
He currently faces fresh scrutiny over sexist comments caught on camera during a trip to North Korea in 2018 that were broadcast for the first time in a documentary on national television earlier this month.
Asked in a television interview on Wednesday whether Depardieu should be stripped of France's highest state award, which he received nearly three decades ago, Macron said: "You will never see me take part in a manhunt. I hate that kind of thing.
"The presumption of innocence is part of our values."
Macron said he had "huge admiration" for Depardieu, whom he called "an immense actor".
But Generation.s Feministe, a feminist collective, said Macron's comments were "an insult" to all women who had suffered sexual violence, "first and foremost those who accused Depardieu".
Sandrine Rousseau, a Green party MP, called the comments "an insult to the movement that gives a voice to the victims of sexual violence.
"Emmanuel Macron has picked his side -- that of the aggressors," she said on X, formerly Twitter.
Green party spokeswoman Sophie Bussiere accused Macron of being "the chief promoter of rape culture".
Socialist party leader Olivier Faure, also on X, said that battling violence against women was supposed to have been "one of the big causes" of the president's second term.
But, Faure said, "the president believes in none of the things he declares, no matter what the topic".
Anne-Cecile Mailfert, who heads an association called the Women's Foundation, said: "A single tweet is not enough to say how disgraceful and despicable this is towards the victims, and how behind the times."
Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the hard-left France Unbowed party, accused Macron of "trying to turn Gerard Depardieu into a victim", telling BFMTV broadcaster he was "very shocked".
France 2 television channel showed the actor on his 2018 trip to North Korea repeatedly making explicit sexual comments in the presence of a female interpreter and sexualising a small girl riding a horse.
Former president Francois Hollande told the France Inter broadcaster on Thursday he was "not proud of Gerard Depardieu" after seeing the footage.
In October Depardieu rejected all the accusations that had been made against him.
And since the documentary aired, his family has denounced what they say is an "unprecedented conspiracy" against him.
Last week, French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak said the actor's behaviour shamed France, noting that he might be stripped of the Legion d'Honneur, the country's top award he received in 1996.
But in the interview on Wednesday, Macron said the minister may have "gone out on a limb" with her remarks.
"Sometimes people get carried away," he said.
"We don't take the Legion d'Honneur away from an artist on the basis of a TV report or whatever else, because if we started doing that, we'd have to take the Legion d'Honneur away from a lot of artists," he said.
The Legion of Honour "is not there to impose moral standards" on the recipient, Macron said.
But the left-leaning Liberation newspaper said it had been Macron who "not only went out on a limb himself but sank into indecency" with his remarks, instead of simply "seeking shelter behind a presumption of innocence" concerning Depardieu.
Over the weekend, a Belgian municipality stripped Depardieu of the title of honorary citizen, several days after the Canadian province of Quebec revoked its top honour over his "scandalous" comments about women.
In 2017, Macron withdrew the Legion d'Honneur from Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein after a series of accusations of sexual harassment and rape.
