Municipal elections in Metz: accused of promoting rape culture, RN candidate defends himself

One of the green candidate’s colleagues in Metz (Moselle) posted an old video on Thursday, March 5, featuring the head of the National Rally list, Etienne Anstett. He was accused of promoting rape culture, but he defended himself by claiming it was a “parody.”

Embarrassing images resurfaced just a week before the first round of the municipal elections in Metz (Moselle). In a video posted on an old TikTok account, “Le Mal-Pensant,” Etienne Anstett, the head of the National Rally list in Metz, appeared to mock the concept of consent. Although the video and the account were deleted, a colleague of the green candidate in Metz decided to repost these images on March 5.

In the video, Etienne Anstett narrates a sex scene between a man and a woman from the “left,” signing a 27-page penetration contract that undermines rape culture. He also declares, “Even in bed, activism is not over.”

He then describes the elements of a rape before commenting, “After all, isn’t sex comparable to rape culture, depicting the possession of the woman in a male-dominated penetration violence?”

“A parody,” defends the National Rally candidate.

Denis Marchetti, a colleague of the green candidate Jérémie Roques, wrote under the post that he chose to publish the video on social media to “enlighten” voters about Etienne Anstett’s view on relationships between men and women.

“I hesitated a lot before posting this video of the National Rally candidate for the Metz mayor’s office because it disgusts me. But as March 8 approaches, it seems to me that it nevertheless shed useful light on the candidate’s vision of male-female relationships,” he wrote.

Accused of promoting rape culture, Etienne Anstett defends himself by claiming the video was made for a satirical TikTok account, which was deleted when he started working for the government.

To our colleagues, the National Rally candidate assures that it is a “parody written under the name of Le Mal-Pensant, written in verses, in alexandrines, which tries to mock an extreme position of a certain left. Who would want everything to be contractualized,” adding that consent is “fundamental in France.”