Laurent Fabius appeared on cover of Le Parisien magazine to raise awareness of a major climate conference

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A photograph of France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, posing as a dapper weatherman to raise awareness of a major climate conference has been ridiculed by internet users.

Laurent Fabius as Mr Weather. Photograph: Le Parisien

Wearing black trousers, a smart white shirt and bow tie, Fabius smiles as he points to a weather map on the front cover of the weekly Le Parisien Magazine, due out on Friday 20 June but part of which was already online the day before.

"Mr Weather – 500 days to save the planet: Paris Climate 2015, Laurent Fabius's challenge," the headline reads, referring to a major climate conference called COP21 taking place next year in the French capital.

Inside the magazine, the foreign minister is also seen throwing a ball representing the globe.

The front cover was widely mocked online.

"France wants to fight climate change with Laurent Fabius posing as Mr Weather. We've got our work cut out for COP21," tweeted @GwendolineRIOU.

The picture was instantly hijacked and transformed into innovative photo montages in which Fabius is seen pointing variously at ET, God in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel painting, the nostrils of author Victor Hugo and a pair of breasts.

Tuxboard #CDM2014 (@tuxboard) Laurent Fabius Monsieur Météo : Le MEME http://t.co/cT1tMdK65T pic.twitter.com/Jnhl9t0njW

Francois Vey, chief editor of Le Parisien, told AFP the team had made several proposals to Fabius as to how to stage the picture.

"There are things he refused: for instance, we had rented a polar bear from a taxidermist and we wanted to put him on an ice cap that was melting," he said.

Fabius's entourage said the "aim is to inform the general public of the stakes involved in a manner that is neither pessimistic nor guilt-inducing but with humour."

This is at least the third time that a top Socialist politician in France has posed for the front cover of the weekly magazine – to general hilarity.

Ségolène Royal, the environment and energy minister who in 2007 lost the presidential election to Nicolas Sarkozy, last year posed as France's revolutionary symbol Marianne in a photo that aimed to recreate Eugène Delacroix's famous painting Liberty Leading the People.

The photo also spawned derision and surprise on Twitter and creative montages picturing Royal with her gown and flag in unlikely situations.

Economy minister Arnaud Montebourg also attracted scorn in 2012 when still industry minister after he posed wearing a striped Breton sailor top, in a bid to promote French-made fare.