Climate activists nab Macron portraits, divide French judges
Courts around
One by one, environmental activists around
Their point: Even as Macron portrays himself on the global stage as Mr. Climate , the centrist, business-friendly president isn't acting boldly enough to change his own country's planet-damaging ways. They're notably angry that
The portrait-removers have been facing trials around the country , with some fined, others acquitted. An appeals trial of the first court case was held last week in
The protesters don't fit a single mold — one's a math teacher, another works for the
At last week's trial, defendant Helene Lacroix-Baudrion argued that the portrait removal was "an act aimed at taking care of life and our environment."
"We just want Macron, who holds himself up as a climate defender, to respect
An expert working for the U.N. climate change agency testified as a defense witness at the trial, and climate activists gathered for a boisterous protest outside the courthouse.
The trials themselves have turned into public debates on civil disobedience,
However, Macron backed down on a fuel tax last year meant to help wean
So activists started targeting Macron's portraits, symbolically dethroning him to demand action.
Several brought stolen portraits to a march at the
French law says the acts can be considered "group theft," which can be punishable by several years in prison. No court seems willing to go as far as locking up the portrait-removers, but the verdicts have been mixed.
Six portrait-removers were convicted in the first trial, in Bourg-en-Bresse in June, but five were only given suspended fines. The sixth was fined
The court ruling said it wasn't clear how removing the portraits would "save humanity from ecological disaster" and argued that "other avenues were open to the defendants to defend their cause."
The protesters themselves, from the Non-Violent Action
In September, a
"Faced with the lack of respect by the state" for its climate commitments, the ruling reads, "the citizens' means of expression in a democratic country cannot be reduced to the votes cast in elections."
A few weeks later, a
Nine more trials are scheduled in coming months, all over
Follow AP's full coverage of climate change issues at https://www.apnews.com/Climate
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