The comments made on February 11 in a radio interview by the Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, responsible for Gender Equality and the Fight against Discrimination, are unacceptable.
On February 11, in a radio interview, the Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, responsible for Gender Equality and the Fight against Discrimination, stated: "I have asked that all [feminist] associations receiving financial support [from the government] be scrutinized. (...) If there is the slightest ambiguity about comments that may have been made on October 7, it would obviously not be normal for these associations to continue to receive subsidies from the government." "I refuse to allow the state to financially support associations that are unable to characterize what happened." The minister said she had asked her administration for a response within a few days. Equipop wishes to respond to these unacceptable comments. What is at stake here is the relationship between the public authorities and feminist associations. Historically, in France, the majority of feminist associations have strived, if not to support, then at least to maintain a dialogue with the Minister for Gender Equality, even when the associations strongly criticize the government's overall action on equality. Most of the ministers or secretaries of state concerned have generally acted in this spirit of consultation, and sometimes even co-construction. Aurore Bergé's statements create a break in this dynamic. They establish a unilateral power relationship. It is one thing to check what public subsidies are being used to fund, but it is quite another to use vocabulary such as "scrutinizing" associations, which refers to authoritarian state control over them. Beyond the French feminist ecosystem, for some time now, associative freedoms have been under increasingly direct attack. Associations, in all their diversity, are one of the lungs of democracy, and Aurore Bergé's approach contributes to discrediting their actions. Yet, until now, in the field of equality in particular, associations have been compensating for the state's many shortcomings with derisory means. At a time when far-right movements are experiencing an unprecedented rise in power, and when the rights of women and girls are facing a backlash both nationally and internationally, France cannot afford to take a threatening stance towards feminist associations, when it is supposed to be a "bulwark" against this backlash.
