Theft of French President Emmanuel Macron’s portrait justified by climate change, judge rules
- The judge said the protesters behind the theft had only caused a limited disturbance and their actions were a ‘legitimate call on the president’
The judge in Lyon acquitted the pair of theft in a ruling hailed as historic by campaigners.
In February, a group of 20 activists entered the town hall in a district of the French city. Two of them, Fanny Delahalle, 33, and Pierre Goinciv, 32, removed a portrait of the president, copies of which hang in all official buildings in France. They were pictured holding the gold-framed portrait outside the entrance of the building.
Prosecutors demanded they be fined 500 euros (US$551). The public prosecutor, Rozenn Huon, told the court: “It’s clearly theft and it has done nothing to help climate change.”
The judge conceded “an object of a very strong symbolic value” had been stolen but said the climate crisis was more serious.
“Climate change is a constant that seriously affects the future of humanity by provoking natural catastrophes that poorer countries don’t have the means to protect themselves against,” he said.