woman prosecuted for calling Emmanuel Macron “junk” on Facebook – RT in French

Valérie is accused of contempt and insulting Emmanuel Macron following the publication of a message on Facebook. She was taken into custody and will be tried in court on June 20. She risks a fine of 12,000 euros.

On her Facebook page, Valérie, a resident of Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem (Pas-de-Calais) posted the following message on March 21: “The garbage will speak tomorrow at 1 p.m., for people who are nothing , it’s always on TV that we find the garbage.” The next day, Emmanuel Macron was to give a television interview to the 1 p.m. newspapers on France 2 and TF1.

Three days later, to her surprise, three police officers knocked on the door of the activist, a figure of the Yellow Vests, and took her to the station. In the voice of the North, we learn that Valérie is accused of “contempt and insult to the President of the Republic” following the publication of his message. She was taken into custody and will be tried in court on June 20 for contempt of a person holding public authority.

As the regional newspaper reports, at the police station, it is explained to her that she is also suspected of having written “Macron garbage” in front of the waste depot in Arques (Pas-de-Calais). “False, I was just photographed in front of me smiling,” she says. But the police investigation opened following a complaint against X filed by the sub-prefect of the arrondissement of Saint-Omer, Guillaume Thirard, continues.

Valérie believes that we want to make an example of her, this kind of prosecution being extremely rare, even by the admission of the police officers she met. “The police told me that they very rarely see a procedure of this type,” she says. Asked by the voice of the North, the commissioner of the public security district of Saint-Omer, Hugo Wyon, confirms: “It is a procedure which is not often triggered, especially against the person of the President of the Republic. But the outrages and insults being considered as an offence, police custody can be decided within the framework of the investigation.

The prosecution prosecuted the 50-year-old for insult “by word, writing, image or means of electronic communication”, an offense under press law punishable by a fine of up to 12,000 euros.