Posters depicting Macron as Hitler found on 120 billboards in France’s Avignon city, cops initiate probe

Police in France's Avignon city are looking into several posters that depict French President Emmanuel Macron as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. As many as 30 posters were placed on about120 billboards in Avignon city depictingMacron in a suit and moustache. The caricature posters bore digits "49.3" and greying hair. The numbers pertain to an articleof the Constitution that was utilised to pass pension reform legislation in the National Assembly.

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Photos from the daily newspaper La Provence show the phrase"No thank you" and the hashtag #agirousubir (act or suffer) surrounding the image of Macron, as per reports.

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Lekto and Macron-Hitler fiasco

The 30 posters were reproductions of a mural of French President Emmanuel Macron painted by a local street artist named Lekto that was put up on an electrical transformer along a major road in Avignon in April.The posters were taken down at the time and now they are seen on prominent billboards close to the town hall, the prefecture, and the railroad station.

In 2022, Letko is alleged to have painted a mural, that has since been removed, which showed Macron as the puppet of the Jewish political consultant Jacques Attali. Authorities regarded it as being anti-Semitic. "How far will they go in the indignity and abjectness? It is high time to sanction in the most severe way possible those who engage in such odious campaigns," tweeted the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Renaud Muselier.

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Avignon's town hallannounced that it will lodge a complaint and that the police had been called in to take down the posters. Whosoever has put up the posters, according to the prosecution, would face fines of €12,000 for insulting the president as well as two months in jail and €7,500 in fines for inciting rebellion.

France Pension reforms

France witnessed a series of demonstrations and social unrest in response to the proposed changes to the country's pension system. The pension reform was a key policy agenda of President Emmanuel Macron's government.Under the reforms, the government increased the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.

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The reforms, as per Macron government, aimed to align the retirement age with increasing life expectancy, encouraging people to work longer before accessing their pensions. The changes were intended to ensure the financial viability of the pension system.

Caricature controversies are not new in France. The Charlie Hebdo caricatures, a series of satirical cartoons published by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad led to widespread controversy and backlash.

Many Muslims found these cartoons offensive and disrespectful. The publication of the caricatures sparked protests, debates on freedom of speech, and discussions about the boundaries of satire and religious sensitivity.

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