| French President Emmanuel Macron sues billboard owner for depicting him as Hitler French President Emmanuel Macron is suing a billboard owner who depicted him as Adolf Hitler to protest COVID-19 restrictions. Michel-Ange Flori, who owns about 400 billboards in the southern département of the Var, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday: "I have just learnt that I will be heard at the Toulon police station tomorrow following a complaint by the president of the Republic." "So in Macronia you can make fun of the prophet's ass, that's satire, but to make the president look like a dictator is blasphemy," he added. The offending poster portrays Macron in the uniform of Nazi leader Hitler, with a small moustache, a lock on his forehead and the acronym of the presidential movement LREM turned into a swastika. A message reads: "Obey, get vaccinated." It was shown in recent days on two billboards measuring four meters by three meters located on a four-lane road near the entrance to Toulon. Someone had written "Shame" over one of them. The Toulon Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation for "public insult" on Tuesday. The offence of "insulting the president of the Republic" was repealed in 2013 after a European Court of Human Rights ruling condemning France, but the head of state is protected from insult and public defamation like any ordinary citizen, even if prosecutions, sometimes perceived as an attack on freedom of expression, are rare. Flori has defended himself, saying: "You see Hitler, but you can see Stalin, or I see Charlie Chaplin in The Dictator." These posters aim to question "this democracy where decisions are taken without discussion at a health council," he explained. It is not the first time his posters, which he regularly uses to comment on political or society issues, have drawn criticism or landed him in legal trouble. People against COVID-19 restrictions in France have compared the country to a dictatorship with some of those protesting the health pass — currently required to visit leisure and cultural venues but soon to be extended to bars, restaurants and long-distance public transport — seen wearing yellow stars recalling the ones the Nazis forced Jews to wear. Minister for European Affairs Clément Beaune has condemned the rhetoric, stating: " I wish there were many dictatorships like Frace around the world." https://www.euronews.com/2021/07/29/french-president-emmanuel-macron-sues-billboard-owner-for-depicting-him-as-hitler See also: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/depiction-macron-hitler-tests-frances-tolerance-satire-2021-07-30/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/emmanuel-macron-takes-legal-action-over-hitler-poster-comparison and the following link for the said picture: https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/la-seyne-sur-mer-l-afficheur-controverse-flori-compare-emmanuel-macron-a-hitler-1626549645 For more stupidity: https://www.euronews.com/2021/07/19/anger-as-french-vaccine-rule-protesters-draw-nazi-era-comparison *** *** *** "So much for free speech!" will say some people. "The comparison of Macron with Hitler is offensive!... for Hitler!" would say others (at least 9,921 people here). But there is a fine line between satire and insults and defamation. This guy's desperate attempt to draw a parallel with Charlie Hebdo is nil since this journal could have equally been sued for some of its articles and cartoons (it indicates in particular that he supported the views of this journal...). He will not draw any sympathy by using injustice to justify injustice. Indeed, his "cause" is ultimately wrong, and his comparison is equally wrong. He also said that he liked making posters of his tweets... https://mrmondialisation.org/michel-ange-flori-lhomme-qui-provoque-les-autorites/ An image of the poster below: |
| Macron needs to get a thicker skin or better yet, stop being a tyrant, he's been driving France into the ground with his abysmal domestic policies. |
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| I find it amusing that Macron is crying over mean pictures |
| Stuff in the streets, Stuff with drip in the sheets |
| I'm the cause of this thread xD So yeah, my mother was offended during a protest by the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (New Anticapitalist Party) where Macron was compared to Hitler, it was probably in the wake of this picture or in the same sentiment ; let's say Macron has some support as the representant of the country (institutionally speaking), regardless of disagreement over policies It is true his policies have gotten authoritarian, you can lose your job for not being vaccinated, and even institutions that should defend the rights of individuals are in favor of current vaccination policies, in the idea of a public order and a general interest that primes over individual interests. I align with the general interest idea but I find his policies too brutal... Therefore it becomes a bit totalitarian, since at its core a totalitarism is about a view of the human that is defended, and the defended view is modernist (trust in science). |
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| Wowowow I'm used to strangers being ignorant regarding the content of Charlie Hebdo, but not with french users. The only injustice that ever happened at Charlie Hebdo was letting religious organizations spread their disinformation and sue them over and over to try and make blasphemy an actual illegal act in France. A tactic that is spreading worldwide amongst religious organizations trying to fuck up everybody's lives for power. I also find it funny that anti-vaxxers are trying to raise Charlie Hebdo's exemple as a shield. Anti-science lunatics and sheeps who believe the first thing they're told are exactly the people Charlie Hebdo makes fun of. |
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| This is hilarious, even Trump didn't sue over the Trump fat baby ballon. Macron seems so disliked by France, how is he in power? I remember May was the worst PM ever but no one voted her in. Is it possible the far right get in power the next election? |
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QPR said: This is hilarious, even Trump didn't sue over the Trump fat baby ballon. Macron seems so disliked by France, how is he in power? I remember May was the worst PM ever but no one voted her in. Is it possible the far right get in power the next election? It's nigh impossible for far right to win in France. It'll probably reach the second part of the election, and you'll hear media outlets fussing about it saying France is in danger to become far right, but then whoever passed with them will win by a landslide. Macron is very prideful about the "image" of the President and doesn't easily tolerate disrespect towards the president (well, meaning, him as president), yeah. I don't think I've ever seen a French president who is that openly annoyed when disrespect happens. Even Sarkozy feels humble and tolerant on this point by comparison. I get where he comes from on this, as letting go major disrespects towards the president like others usually do is basically affecting the authority of the government as a whole, and it's clear that in the west respect towards our own leaders and governments have plummeted over time, and letting go of these isn't helping. Doesn't mean I like the way he handles these case though. As for why he is in power, well, EVERY political leader over here is disliked. We never ever had any leader since almost forever that have approval rating as high as Trump had by the end of his 4 years. High number of approval usually mean below 40%, and all time low are below 10% of approval. Macron is AFAIk still in the 30%, so he's doing fairly well compared to his predecessor, for example. In fact, at this rate, i'd say there's a fairly good chance that Macron will be the one competing with the far right on the second turn of the next presidential election, which would mean, like I said above, that Macron probably currently has fairly high chances to be re-elected for 5 more years. |
ZefyrisAug 2, 2021 2:20 AM
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| Marine Le Pen is crying in the corner because she was the one who wanted to be compared with Hitler |
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Deathko said: Wowowow I'm used to strangers being ignorant regarding the content of Charlie Hebdo, but not with french users. The only injustice that ever happened at Charlie Hebdo was letting religious organizations spread their disinformation and sue them over and over to try and make blasphemy an actual illegal act in France. A tactic that is spreading worldwide amongst religious organizations trying to fuck up everybody's lives for power. I also find it funny that anti-vaxxers are trying to raise Charlie Hebdo's exemple as a shield. Anti-science lunatics and sheeps who believe the first thing they're told are exactly the people Charlie Hebdo makes fun of. Are you a Charlie Hebdo reader? Do you laugh at such images (from 1996)? Perhaps you have not noticed that in my posts, but I have always opposed to any form of censorship. And that does not mean that I believe that Charlie Hebdo was right in a certain number of their positions, albeit not penally responsible. This is why I called it an injustice (as comparing Macron to Hitler is unfair and revolting, independently of what you think of Macron), like systematically comparing Muslims with terrorists during two decades. Anyway, this is tangential to this topic so I would rather not derail the thread further (not that it matters much since CE will close by the end of the week). |
| @Meusnier I'll keep it short (also CE is closing?), but there's a difference between conflating every muslim with a terrorist, and acknnowledging religious terrorism. The truth is, in France, and since a long, long time, religions have been ploting to censor any kind of criticism. No, CH never claimed all muslims were terrorists, all jews bloodthirsty zionists, and all catholics child rapists. But those three churches sure tried hard to make you believe they did (numerous judments in favor of CH over the years), and one silenced them by force. You'll excuse me if I don't remember 1996 that well, I was 6 years old, but a quick search found islamic terrorist bombings in Alger in February. Could it be that there was a wave of islamic terrorist bombing, and that Charlie Hebdo was sticking to the news as usual? And did they ever miss an opportunity to nail pedo priests, or zionists, or the dalai-lama either? You believe what you want but honestly arguing that CH conflates moderate muslims and terrorists is about as defendable as arguing that antizionism is the same thing as antisemitism. Charlie Hebdo acknowledges religious terrorism which is a reality in France and the world, and is an atheist newspaper, so expecting them to manage the sensibilities of religious folks by closing their eyes on religious terrorism in a laic country is kinda... meh. |
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What I'm wondering is that why he didn't sue the Muslim protesters around the world back then who depict him as the devil. |
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Deathko said: @Meusnier I'll keep it short (also CE is closing?), but there's a difference between conflating every muslim with a terrorist, and acknnowledging religious terrorism. The truth is, in France, and since a long, long time, religions have been ploting to censor any kind of criticism. No, CH never claimed all muslims were terrorists, all jews bloodthirsty zionists, and all catholics child rapists. But those three churches sure tried hard to make you believe they did (numerous judments in favor of CH over the years), and one silenced them by force. You'll excuse me if I don't remember 1996 that well, I was 6 years old, but a quick search found islamic terrorist bombings in Alger in February. Could it be that there was a wave of islamic terrorist bombing, and that Charlie Hebdo was sticking to the news as usual? And did they ever miss an opportunity to nail pedo priests, or zionists, or the dalai-lama either? You believe what you want but honestly arguing that CH conflates moderate muslims and terrorists is about as defendable as arguing that antizionism is the same thing as antisemitism. Charlie Hebdo acknowledges religious terrorism which is a reality in France and the world, and is an atheist newspaper, so expecting them to manage the sensibilities of religious folks by closing their eyes on religious terrorism in a laic country is kinda... meh. Yes, CE will be deleted. https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1945092&show=0 Thank you for your reply, I cannot say that I agree on much but I would rather not derail the thread further. Desolated said: What I'm wondering is that why he didn't sue the Muslim protesters around the world back then who depict him as the devil. How could he sue people from abroad? Anyway, this caricature was awful and the Devil is not a very offensive comparison. |
Desolated said: What I'm wondering is that why he didn't sue the Muslim protesters around the world back then who depict him as the devil. because caricatures are allowed in France. I think it's hard to understand from outside France, but in France, Macron, and most politics, are ALWAYS being caricatured publicly anyway. It was honnestly quite funny to see muslims doing caricatures of Macron thinking "look, we can do the same, now you'll understand how bad we feel" when Macron as president was already caricatured by French folks themselves since the beginning of his mandate anyway. Seeing them follow our trend while thinking they were offending us /him was very amusing, ngl. At best my reaction to that specific drawing was something like "wow, whoever drew that is pretty good, that looks kinda cool too". Pretty sure that whoever were using that did not draw it to have that kind of reactions from us lmao :D. Also, for France, devils don't exist anyway, just like gods. So that devil thing is just an imaginary creature in some well known old book. |
ZefyrisAug 3, 2021 6:30 AM
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