Access hindered, slogans chanted during the performance: a concert of Gérard Depardieu was disturbed Saturday night in Lyon by activists denouncing accusations of sexual violence that target the actor. "The black eagle is you! La Honte!": in the middle of the Lyon concert of the tour "Depardieu chante Barbara", five activists present in the audience suddenly burst into front of the stage screaming, with pig masks on their faces, before being pushed out by security, an AFP journalist found.
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They follow the mass, they are poor children led by the nose, "commented the actor of 74 years to the applause of some 1,400 people present at the Labor Exchange. In a statement, these activists of the collectives of Amazons Paris and Lyon said "refuse to let men accused of physical and sexual assault perform quietly on stage".
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Before the concert, a hundred activists from various associations had massed in front of the hall located not far from the center of Lyon, to chant slogans against the "aggressor" Depardieu and his "complicit public". However, spectators were able to enter smoothly, as the entrance to the building had to be secured by a dozen police officers. Since the end of April, several performances of the actor have already been agitated by demonstrators, including in Lille on April 28, then this week in Bordeaux and Toulouse.
These disruptions come in the wake of recent assertions by Mediapart, revealing 13 testimonies of "sexist and sexual violence" that would have been committed by the actor on eleven shootings between 2004 and 2022. The actor is also under indictment for suspicions of rape and sexual assault on the actress Charlotte Arnould. "He, he continues to sing (...) Barbara. He is currently starring in a film. It's unfair, a terrible injustice," the 27-year-old actress said Tuesday in an interview with BFMTV.
According to the law firm Temime, in charge of defending him, the actor "formally denies" these accusations that have already earned him to be excluded from the promotion of his film "Umami", released on May 17. The next performance of the tour "Depardieu chante Barbara" is scheduled for June 10 in Tours.
