The first head of state since Mitterrand to go to the big annual meeting of comics in Angoulême, Emmanuel Macron celebrated this Thursday a “major art” and surprised by posing with a t-shirt denouncing police violence, offered by the designer Jul.
During a lunch between the Head of State and the authors, Emmanuel Macron received from the hands of the designer of “Silex and the city” a t-shirt representing a Fauve (the award awarded to Angoulême, editor’s note) éborgné. Under the drawing is written: “LBD 2020”, reference to the defense ball launcher (LBD) and to the acronym chosen for the year of the comic strip (BD 2020).
►►► Also read: the defense ball launcher, disproportionate use of force?
A photo of the head of state posing with a smile with his gift, posted by the designer on the networks, immediately ignited the web.
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And makes the opposition react. Of right: “an anti-police propaganda tool that has nothing to do in the hands of the President of the Republic”, according to the deputy LR Eric Ciotti. As left: “the president trivializes police violence”, according to the leader of the rebellious France Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Two of the main police unions protested to AFP. “It’s scandalous”, reacted Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of the SGP-FO Unit. Fabien Vanhemelryck, secretary general of Alliance, described the episode as “worst signal in the current context of chaos”.
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TOO MUCH PROVOCATION !?
Restraint, Mr. President, like the ethics imposed on us, must be a mark of greatness … pic.twitter.com/pxJzmK71F2– ALLIANCE PN (@alliancepolice) January 30, 2020
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Jul said on this occasion that he had “a long conversation on the subject of police violence” with the president.
Interviewed later by the press, Emmanuel Macron said he “challenged the term police violence”, ensuring that “violence is first in society”.
“Nevertheless from where I am I must defend creativity, freedom of expression, including insolence and including the creation of artists who say things (…) with which I do not agree”, he added.
In a city crisscrossed by numerous police, the episode marked the presidential visit. The head of state avoided the city center, where about 200 protesters hostile to the pension reform, lawyers and a handful of authors, were waiting for him.
In the absence of the president, these demonstrators, gathered on the square of the Hôtel de Ville, copiously heckled and whistled the Minister of Culture Franck Riester, who came to launch the year of comics.
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