Brigitte Macron urges women to ‘break the silence’, as French Elle publishes cover of murdered girlfriend of rockstar

France's First Lady Brigitte Macron has urged women to "break the silence" on abusive men as French Elle published a cover of a rockstar's murdered girlfriend.

Mrs Macron's call on women to speak out about sexual abuse, harassment or violence came amid furious debate over male abuse of women in France in the wake of the scandal embroiling Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

President Emmanuel Macron's wife was speaking after attending Les Chatouilles (Tickling), a one-woman play by Andréa Bescond who recounts her own rape, at a Paris theatre.

Asked afterwards to comment a torrent of online reaction in France to the Weinstein scandal, leading to thousands of women to recount harassment in the workplace, Mrs Macron said: "I'm very happy that women are speaking out. It could be a cloud with a silver lining."

She added: "That's enough. I think that all this (harassment) must stop very quickly. Freeing up speech is the best thing that could happen. (The women who speak out) are very brave to do so. I urge them to break their silence. It's wonderful. Something is happening, really."

She spoke after thousands of people commented on one female French journalist's call on Twitter to bring harassment out in the open under the hashtag "Squeal on the pigs".

Also present was justice minister Nicole Belloubet and gender equality minister Marlène Schiappa, who on Monday confirmed that France would next year pass a law granting police powers to hand out on-the-spot fines to men who harass women in public.

Mrs Macron's appearance came amid outrage in France over the decision of Les Inrockuptibles, France's Rolling Stone magazine, to slap one of the country's previously most iconic rock stars on its front cover despite the fact he was convicted of beating his actress girlfriend to death

Bertrand Cantat was found guilty of murdering actress Marie Trintignant in 2003 while she was shooting a film in Lithuania. He was released after serving half of his eight-year sentence years for good behaviour.

One online commentator juxtaposed a picture of the front cover of Les Inrockuptibles with the Ms Trintignant's autopsy underneath with the details of her injuries.

The front cover prompted the Ms Schiappa to exclaim: "In the name of what should we put up with the promotion of the man who beat Marie Trintignant to death?"  

A former women's rights minister accused the magazine of indecency and seeking to "wipe the slate clean" over her death.  Laurence Rossignol called on the magazine to "apologise to the Trintignant family and all the victims of violence against women".

This week, Elle France magazine responded by placing a photo of the late Ms Trintignant on the front cover with the caption: "In the name of Marie".

The actress, it said, had become "the face of all women victims of male violence. The face of the 123 unknown women killed by their partners last year."

"Marie Trintignant, we won't forget you. It will take more than the obscene media promotion of Bertrand Cantat…to extinguish the flame."

Mr Cantat, who is bringing out his first solo album in December, this month released a single called England.