Activists call on France to endorse a consent-based rape definition across the entire European Union

By HELENA ALVES and SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Activists wearing masks depicting President Emmanuel Macron have urged France to change its position and endorse a law proposed by the European Union that would define rape as sex without consent in the bloc’s 27 countries. The demonstrators gathered in downtown Paris on Friday on the eve of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to apply pressure on the French head of state. The European Commission proposed legislation last year to make consent-based rape laws consistent across the bloc and to introduce a common set of penalties.