Action française de Vendée, a far-right royalist movement, took responsibility on social networks for the damage committed on Friday on a statue of Simone Veil in La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée).
It had been stained with red paint and covered with a slogan hostile to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion).
In a video accompanying the claim, we can see around ten people filmed from behind placing baby dolls sprinkled with fake blood at the foot of Simone Veil's statue, before dyeing the water in the fountain red. that the statue overlooks.
They also put up pieces of cardboard under the bust of Simone Veil stating that “the Constitution is killing our children”.
“Woe to the people who sacrifice their children,” we can read at the end of the video.
Outrage at this odious staging around the bust of #SimoneVeil.
This sickening act cannot be tolerated!
The legacy of this remarkable woman must be preserved and celebrated.
I contact the public prosecutor. #InternationalWomen's Rights Day pic.twitter.com/RaatlRIQWD
— Luc_Bouard (@Lucbouard) March 8, 2024
“Outrage at this odious staging”
The message of demand published on social networks by Action française de Vendée establishes a direct link between this macabre scene and “the ceremony of the inclusion of abortion in the French Constitution” organized the same day in Paris.
Simone Veil is particularly famous for having adopted in January 1975 the law decriminalizing abortion in France.
The town hall of La Roche-sur-Yon stressed that it had the damage cleaned up on Friday morning by municipal agents and told AFP that it had immediately filed a complaint with the public prosecutor.
“Outrage at this odious staging around the bust of Simone Veil,” wrote the mayor of La Roche-sur-Yon Luc Bouard on X, “this sickening act cannot be tolerated!
The legacy of this remarkable woman must be preserved and celebrated.
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The inclusion in the Constitution of the law on abortion triggered other degradations of places linked to abortion.
Family planning in Lille (North) was targeted by tags twice in three days.
And in Grau-du-Roi (Gard), an avenue plaque in the name of Simone Veil was torn down and thrown to the ground.