A man, identified as belonging to the group of yellow vests, tore up an official portrait of Emmanuel Macron which was hung in the town hall of Besançon (Doubs), and replaced it with a QR code in the shape of a finger of honor, France Bleu reported on Tuesday, August 3.
The perpetrator filmed his action and posted the video on a Facebook group.
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In this sequence of just over five minutes, Stéphane Espic films himself taking down the portrait of the Head of State before replacing it with a QR code, under the eyes of a group of people gathered in the hall of town hall. The man then leaves the town hall and tears the portrait of the President of the Republic at the level of the head. The yellow vest, always accompanied by several individuals, then went to the Besançon courthouse, where he placed in a banner a letter as well as the torn portrait intended for the public prosecutor.
"It's a piece of evidence"
, he explains to the security officer of the court who asks him to throw the torn portrait of the president in a trash can.
Visibly satisfied with his gesture, the man ended up inviting other yellow vests to continue the demonstration.
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The Besançon prosecutor's office has opened an investigation for theft, contempt of person holding public authority and degradation of public property,
France Bleu said
. This is not the first time that a portrait of the Head of State has been hung in a public building. From February 2019, activists in the fight for the climate seized the official portrait of the president in several French town halls, in Paris, Biarritz and Lyon in particular.
