French minister gets wolf whistles in House - Times of India

LONDON: A 37-year-old woman minister, who wore a kneelength floral summery dress and high heels to parliament, faced a barrage of wolf-whistles from male MPs when she stood up to give a speech.

Housing minister Cecile Duflot also faced yells of " Phwoarr" on Friday as she tried to make a speech to the National Assembly in Paris, The Sun reported Saturday.

She began, "Ladies and gentlemen... obviously, more gentlemen than ladies" , but her words were drowned out.

After the howling, the minister said: "I have worked in the building trade and I have never seen anything like that. This tells you something about our MPs. I just think of their wives."

Duflot was a former town planner who once wore jeans to a cabinet meeting. Members of the Union for a Popular Movement, the party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy , were widely blamed for the abuse, The Sun said.

A video of the incident caused an outrage, with many people saying it highlighted the shortcomings of the political class. MP Patrick Balkany, a close friend of Sarkozy , said Duflot put on the knee-length dress "so we wouldn't listen to what she was saying".