The affair had shocked.
Simone Veil's memory was outraged.
Four times during the summer, on August 2, 8, 10 and 14, the stele installed in Perros-Guirec (Côtes-d'Armor) in homage to the former politician had been disfigured, degraded by tags anti-Semites and in particular swastikas.
After a sensitive investigation carried out by the gendarmes of the Côtes-d'Armor grouping, two men were arrested on Tuesday and placed in police custody.
Information confirmed by the Saint-Brieuc prosecutor, in charge of the case.
According to our information, the first suspect was arrested on Tuesday morning by investigators from the gendarmerie.
Aged in his early sixties and living in the department, he is suspected of being involved in the damage.
His custody has only just begun and his exact role will have to be clarified during the next few hours.
According to a source familiar with the matter, "a second man presented himself to the gendarmerie" a little later in the day.
He claims to have played a role in the various messages inscribed in recent weeks on this monument erected in the small Costa Rican town.
If these first statements seem precise, the investigators are now trying to verify that he does not fool around, and to know if he has a link with the man arrested a little earlier in the morning.
The stone covered with mustard and excrement
Quiet seaside resort in Côtes-d'Armor, Perros-Guirec had erected this stele in memory of the academician in 2018. Until this summer, it had never been the target of degradation.
But in a few weeks during the month of August, the pink granite stone was successively covered with mustard or excrement, then deteriorated by the inscription of swastikas or the message "responsible for the genocide".
Former minister who gave her name to the law legalizing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), Simone Veil was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp at the age of 16. Both his parents died there. These degradations had reacted to the highest summit of the state. “We will never allow anti-Semitism to take hold. For Simone Veil whose stele has been desecrated, to all, I want to repeat it: France will not retreat, ”Emmanuel Macron denounced on Twitter.
