The scene filmed on Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergere theatre in Paris with Ary Abittan, a French actor and humourist previously accused of rape, before a performance he was about to give.

Feminist campaigners had disrupted his show the previous night with shouts of “Abittan, rapist!”

Speaking before Sunday’s performance, Mrs Macron asked him how he was feeling. When he said he was feeling scared, she made a derogatory and sexist reference to the women, adding: “We’ll toss them out.”

Her office said in a statement that she had been trying to calm the performer’s nerves: “As the video shows, Mrs Macron’s only intention was to reassure an artist who, in his dressing room before going on stage, had just told her, ‘I’m scared’, because his show

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