French minister admits inappropriate behaviour toward female journalist

French finance minister Michel Sapin admitted to behaving inappropriately towards a female journalist, days after a sex scandal forced the resignation of the vice-president of the lower house of parliament.

Sapin said that he was sorry about what he did but insisted that that should not be “confused with the seriousness of harassment or sexual assault”.

“During a trip to Davos in January 2015, amid about 20 people, I made a comment to a journalist about her clothing and put my hand on her back,” Sapin said, in a statement that partly denied what French journalists wrote about what happened at the World Economic Forum — that Sapin twanged the elastic of her knickers.