Toulouse: the “dropouts” of the portrait of Emmanuel Macron, tried before the Court of Appeal, arrive by bike
Left Bordeaux by bike, the dropouts of portraits of Emmanuel Macron arrive, this Wednesday, February 15 in Toulouse, to be judged by the Court of Appeal.
In September 2019, they had been talked about. Eight activists from the Action-nonviolent ANV-COP21 environmental defense movement were prosecuted for “aggravated theft” after having “taken down” portraits of the President of the Republic in four town halls in the Arcachon basin, in May of the same year.
Unknown to the radars of justice, aged 21 to 63, from various social backgrounds (general practitioner, students, teacher, retiree or even carpenter), four women and four men who ended up having to deal with the courts.
“We hope for relaxation”
Their non-violent action called “Décochons Macron” was intended to denounce “the government’s inaction on the climate emergency and the failure to respect the commitments made by France during COP 21”. Result: 134 portraits of Emmanuel Macron had been “unchecked” in town halls in France.
The eight activists were sentenced by the Bordeaux Criminal Court in December 2019, then on appeal in 2020. But the Court of Cassation overturned this decision. Reason for their coming, this Tuesday, February 15, before the Toulouse Court of Appeal where they will be tried again.
Most wanted to do their “vélorution” and took the road by bike from Bordeaux to reach Toulouse. “We hope for a release, confides an activist Gaëtan. We have reason to believe it can be obtained. From the beginning, we invoked the right to freedom of expression for an action that ultimately presented no harm to anyone…”