French interior minister defends 'precious' right to sunbathe topless
Police spokesperson blames officers' 'clumsiness' for incident
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Your support makes all the difference.France’s interior minister has defended the right to sunbathe topless after police asked three women at a Mediterranean beach to cover themselves.
The incident, which took place at the beach in Sainte-Marie la Mer last week, led to a backlash online, with social media users criticising the gendarmes’ decision.
Although local authorities can implement clothing rules in certain areas, topless bathing is legal in France and is allowed on the beach in question.
The Pyrénées-Orientales police admitted that its officers had made a mistake.
In a Facebook post on Monday, the force explained that on 20 August two of its officers asked three women who were sunbathing topless to cover their chests at the request of a family of holidaymakers.
“Guided by a concern of appeasement, the police asked the persons concerned if they agreed to cover their chest after explaining the meaning and origin of their approach,” the statement added.
Maddy Scheurer, a police spokeswoman, said that despite their “clumsiness” the officers had acted with good intentions.
“You will always see me in uniform. But topless sunbathing is allowed on the beach at Sainte-Marie-la-Mer. It was clumsiness by two gendarmes who had the best intentions,” she tweeted.
In response to the incident, interior minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted his objection to the gendarmes’ actions.
He wrote on Monday that it was “wrong” that the women had been asked to put more clothing on, adding that “freedom is a precious asset”.
Topless sunbathing is now less popular in France than it used to be, according to a survey of 5,000 women undertaken by the French Institute for Public Opinion in 2019.
Researchers found that the number of women who regularly sunbathe topless fell from 29 to 19 per cent between 2016 and 2019, with the large drop being attributed to harassment and the fear of abuse.
At the time, Francois Kraus, of the French Institute for Public Opinion, said: “For people under 25, it is the fear of leering eyes and for 51 per cent of them it’s the fear of being the object of an attack – verbal, physical or sexual. We can talk about a MeToo effect at the beach."
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