The mayor of Metz François Grosdidier (LR) said he was
"scandalized"
Thursday by the night degradation of a statue of General de Gaulle in his city, and announced the filing of a complaint.
In a press release, the mayor of the Lorraine city specifies that
“traces of red paint were found on the hands and the thorax of the statue”
of the first president of the Fifth Republic (1958-1969).
"They are an outrage to the man who, more than any other, embodies Free France and the spirit of Resistance
," indignant Mr. Grosdidier, who himself inaugurated the statue last year on the square. General-de-Gaulle, opposite Metz station.
“The City of Metz files a complaint. We are making available to investigators the recordings of video surveillance cameras
, “said the city councilor, who said he had no indication as to the possible political significance of this act.
The degradations of statues of the man of June 18, 1940 are not common.
In 2017, a 38-year-old man spat on the general's grave in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises (Haute-Marne) and broke the stone cross.
He was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence and probation for two years.