France's justice minister is facing calls for her resignation after she refused to take part in what she called "karaoke" by singing the French national anthem, reports The Guardian.
Christiane Taubira was criticised on her Facebook page for refusing to sing the Marseillaise at a ceremony commemorating the abolition of slavery on Saturday.
The political storm deepened when she responded by posting a long justification, in which she said that "some occasions are more suitable for contemplation … than stage karaoke."
She referred to other occasions when she had decided to remain silent during the singing of the national anthem, and described the Marseillaise as the most abused song in France.
Jean-Pierre Copé, the head of the centre-right opposition party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), said he was deeply shocked by Taubira's comments. "She is a minister of the republic. There are things which one cannot say, that one doesn't have the right to say," he told Europe1 radio.
Taubira, who steered France's controversial same-sex marriage law through parliament, has long been a favourite target of the French right. Copé said on Monday that she should have resigned long ago over her "extremely lax" plans to reform the penal system.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.