A French woman in northern France is to be put on trial on charges of humiliating French President Emmanuel Macron after describing him as ‘filth’ in a Facebook post, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
The woman risks a fine of 12,000 euros but not a lockup if sentenced at the trial due to be held in June. She was arrested on Friday and held in detention for investigation after the state’s local administrative office filed a complaint over her Facebook post, the prosecutor in the northern town of Saint-Omer, Mehdi Benbouzid, told AFP.
The complaint focused on a post on her Facebook page made on March 21, the day before Macron gave a lunchtime interview to TF1 television to protect his controversial pension reforms that have flared nationwide protests.
This piece of filth is going to address you at 1:00 pm… it’s always on television that we see this filth.”
Valerie wrote
The woman, in her 50s, had been a backer of the 2018-2019 “Yellow Vest” protests and marches that shook Macron during his first mandate. She stands charged with “humiliating the president of the republic” and will stand trial on June 20 in Saint-Omer, the prosecutor said.
They want to make an example of me, the woman told La Voix du Nord regional newspaper which first reported the charges. The woman, named by the paper as Valerie, said she was surprised when she answered the knock on the door on Friday morning to encounter police who had come to arrest her.
I asked them if it was a joke, I had never been arrested. I am not public enemy number one.”
Valerie said
The months-long protest movement against the pension reform has sent social pressures twisting in France and Macron and his government denies to give way. New conflicts between police and protesters flared Tuesday and unions have announced a new day of strikes and protests on April 6.
