Sexism row: French Minister admits to ‘inappropriate’ act

Paris

Sapin said that he was sorry about what he did but insisted that it should not be confused with the seriousness of harassment. “During a trip to Davos in January 2015, amid about 20 people, I made a comment to a journalist about her clothing and put my hand on her back,” Sapin said, in a statement that partly denied what French journalists wrote in a recent book about what happened at the World Economic Forum.

“There was no sexual intent but the mere fact that the person was shocked shows that those words and this gesture were inappropriate, and I was, and still am, sorry,” he said.