French government minister, Marlene Schiappa has come under fire from members of her party after appearing on the front cover of Playboy magazine.

Schiappa, who has been a government minister since 2017, appeared on the cover of the magazine to accompany a 12-page interview she did on women’s and LGBT rights.

Schiappa, who serves as the current Minister for the Social Economy and French Associations, was photographed for the cover wearing a white dress, for the magazine known for having nude models on its cover.

 

Schiappa has been a long-time advocate for women’s rights and was appointed as the country’s first ever Gender Equality Minister in 2017.

 

Her appearance on the cover drew criticism from political colleagues including French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

 

Borne said it “wasn’t appropriate, especially during this period,” CNN affiliate BFMTV reported Saturday,

France is currently having a political and social crisis triggered by French President Emmanuel Macron’s move to push ahead with controversial pension reforms despite widespread public opposition.

“We are in the middle of a social crisis, there is the issue of policing, there are people between life and death, and I have the impression of being behind a smoke screen,” Sandrine Rousseau, Green Party politician and fellow women’s rights activist, told BFMTV.

 

French politician, Jean Luc Mélenchon who came third in the 2022 presidential elections criticized both Schiappa’s appearance and the decision by French President Emmanuel Macron to give an interview to children’s magazine, Pif Gadget, this week.

“In a country where the President expresses himself in Pif and his minister in Playboy, the problem would be the opposition. France is going off the rails,” Mélenchon tweeted this weekend.

Schiappa responded to her critics in a tweet on Sunday, saying: “Defending the right of women to have control of their bodies, that’s everywhere and all the time. In France, women are free. With all due respect to the detractors and hypocrites.”

French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin came to Schiappa’s defense during an interview with French news channel CNews on Sunday .

“I wanted to say that Marlene Schiappa is a courageous female politician who has her character and who has her style which is not mine, but I respect,” he remarked.