Why did activists steal the wax statue of Emmanuel Macron from museum?
Greenpeace activists stole the wax statue of French president Emmanuel Macron from the Musée Grévin on Monday before planting it outside the Russian embassy in Paris.
According to reports, activists posing as tourists entered the famous Parisian museum, located in the 9th arrondissement. After posing as museum employees, they managed to steal the statue, worth €40,000, and hid it under a blanket.
A man who identified himself as a member of Greenpeace then contacted the museum to claim responsibility. The museum management immediately informed the police.
The activists then took the statue to the Russian embassy in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, brandishing placards and a banner saying 'Ukraine burns, business continues' to denounce France's economic ties with Russia – specifically French imports of gas and fertiliser from Russia.
Greenpeace said in a statement that it had "borrowed" the statue and explained their action on social media.
'For us, France is playing a double game,' said Jean-Francois Julliard, Director General of Greenpeace France. 'Emmanuel Macron embodies this double discourse: he supports Ukraine but encourages French companies to continue trading with Russia.'
He added: 'We are targeting Emmanuel Macron, because he has a particular responsibility in this situation. He is the one who should be at the forefront of European discussions to put an end to trade contracts between Russia and European countries.'
Une publication partagée par Libération (@liberationfr)
The protest lasted a few minutes before police intervened.
Two people have been arrested, and no news yet on when the wax statue will head back to the Musée Grévin.
Israeli soldiers on Monday barred journalists from entering villages in the West Bank on a planned tour organized by the directors of the Oscar-winning movie No Other Land.
The directors of the deeply compassionate and powerful documentary, which focuses on the systematic Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, said they had invited the journalists on the tour to interview residents about increasing settler violence in the area.
In video posted on X by the film's co-director, Yuval Abraham, an Israeli soldier tells a group of international journalists there is "no passage' in the area because of a military order.
Basel Adra, a Palestinian co-director of the film who lives in the area, said the military then blocked the journalists from entering two Palestinian villages they had hoped to visit.
'They don't want journalists to visit the villages to meet the residents,' said Adra, who had invited the journalists to his home. 'It's clear they don't want the world to see what is happening here.'
Some of the surrounding area, including a collection of small Bedouin villages known as Masafer Yatta, was declared by the military to be a live-fire training zone in the 1980s. Some 1,000 Palestinians have remained there despite being ordered out, and journalists, human rights activists and diplomats have visited the villages in the past.
Palestinian residents in the area have reported increasing settler violence since 7 October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and kickstarted the war in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli soldiers regularly move in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards — and Palestinians fear outright expulsion could come at any time.
Adra said the journalists were eventually able to enter one of the villages in Masafer Yatta, but were barred from entering Tuwani, the village where he lives, and Khallet A-Daba, where he had hoped to take them.
Adra said settlers arrived in Khallet A-Daba Monday and took over some of the caves where village residents live, destroying residents' belongings and grazing hundreds of sheep on village lands. The military demolished much of the village last month.
No Other Land, which won the Oscar this year for Best Documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages. The joint Palestinian-Israeli production was directed by Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, and Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor.
The film also won Best Documentary at the Berlinale, with Adra using his acceptance speech to say that it was difficult to celebrate while his Palestinian compatriots in Gaza were being 'slaughtered and massacred.' He called on Germany 'to respect the UN calls and stop sending weapons to Israel.'
Abraham, then took to the stage: 'We are standing in front of you. Now, we are the same age. I am Israeli, Basel is Palestinian. And in two days, we go back to a land where we are not equal.'
He continued: 'I am under civilian law; Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another but I have voting rights. Basel does not have voting rights. I am free to move where I want in this land. Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, has to end.'
At the time, the speeches of Abraham and Adra were criticized by the Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner - of the Christian Democratic Union party.
On X, he wrote: 'Anti-Semitism has no place in Berlin, and that also applies to the art scene. I expect the new management of the Berlinale to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.'
This led to a massive backlash, and this year, the new Berlinale director Trcia Tuttle addressed the controversy around the film, defending the No Other Land filmmakers by saying that 'discourse which suggests this film or its filmmakers are antisemitic creates danger for all of them, inside and outside of Germany, and it is important that we stand together and support them.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
EU eyes 'leadership' role on oceans ahead of UN summit
The 27-nation bloc wants to position itself as a leader in the field and will formally launch the "European Ocean Pact" at next week's conference in the French city of Nice. But a draft leaked last month was given short shrift by a coalition of environmental groups including Surfrider, WWF, ClientEarth and Oceana -- who saw it as largely rehashing old measures. "While the document outlines steps towards better enforcement of existing laws," they said in a joint statement, "concrete actions to address the most pressing threats to marine life and biodiversity are currently lacking." The draft pact acknowledges the need to boost funding to safeguard the oceans, but is light on hard commitments. Topping the list of measures environmentalists would like to see is an immediate ban on bottom trawling in protected areas -- the subject of a string of court cases -- as well as broader steps to align fishing practices with marine protection. On the European Commission front, officials have pushed back at the criticism -- indicating the leaked document was an interim draft and suggested stronger measures to come. 'Blue economy' to 'blue carbon' Forty percent of Europeans live within 50 kilometres (30 miles) of the coast -- though paradoxically the bloc is dependent on imports for 70 of the aquatic food it consumes, according to EU data cited in the draft. Nevertheless, the so-called "blue economy" linked to the sea supports more than five million jobs and contributes more than 250 billion euros ($285 billion) to the bloc's gross domestic product. As leaked, the draft pact: -- vows to update the bloc's 2008 directive on marine environmental policy and promises a new "Blue Carbon" action plan by 2026 to monitor and extend habitats capable of storing carbon dioxide. -- promises "dedicated attention" to small-scale fisheries and coastal communities that are economically and environmentally vulnerable when marine habitats are degraded. -- pledges to improve use of the European Satellite Oil Monitoring Service (CleanSeaNet), which serves to alert member states to the presence of pollutants. Between 2022 and 2023, the CleanSeaNet system identified more than 7,700 possible oil spills -- mostly in Spain, Greece and Italy -- but states acted on fewer than half of all alerts, according to the European Court of Auditors. When they did act, states confirmed pollution in only seven percent of cases -- often because too much time had elapsed by the time inspection teams arrived on site. 'Clear signal' After unveiling its roadmap in Brussels, the EU will formally present it at the June 9-13 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC), which is set to draw some 70 heads of state and government to southern France. The third of its kind, the UN summit seeks to build unity -- and raise 100 billion dollars in new funds -- for marine conservation, in spite of deep divergences over deep-sea mining, plastic trash and overfishing. One of its aims is to secure the 60 ratifications needed to enact a landmark treaty to protect marine habitats outside national jurisdiction -- with 28 countries on board so far, along with the EU. The oceans covering 70.8 percent of the globe have absorbed the vast majority of the warming caused by burning fossil fuels and shielded societies from the full impact of greenhouse gas emissions. But there are alarming symptoms of stress: heatwaves, loss of marine life, rising sea levels, falling oxygen levels and acidification caused by the uptake of excess carbon dioxide. The EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis said earlier this month the bloc wanted to send "a clear signal of Europe's leadership, commitment and vision" to its partners in Nice. "The ocean is warming. It is rising. It is acidifying. Pollution from plastics, chemicals, and noise is altering marine ecosystems," Kadis warned.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Prosecutors seek up to four months sentences in Aya Nakamura racist abuse trial
Thirteen people went on trial in France on Wednesday over a "racist" insult targeting Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, who faced criticism from the far right and harassment over her performance at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. The defendants, linked to extreme-right group Les Natifs (the Natives), are on trial for a stunt in March 2024 -- after reports the superstar singer would perform at the Olympics -- when they unveiled a banner reading: "No way, Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market". It was a reference to Mali's capital, where the 30-year-old singer was born, and her hit song "Djadja". Nakamura's performance at the July 2024 opening ceremony sparked a political firestorm among far-right politicians and conservatives, a reaction French President Emmanuel Macron at the time described as "racist" and "shocking". Les Natifs espouses the far-right, white-nationalist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, according to which white Europeans are being deliberately supplanted by non-white immigrants. The 13 defendants, aged between 20 and 31, face charges of publicly inciting hatred or violence -- or complicity in such incitement -- on the grounds of ethnicity, nationality, race or religion. Only three appeared in court, while the remaining 10 were represented by their lawyers. Nakamura was not present at the hearing. The defendants, including the spokesman for Les Natifs, Stanislas T., refused to answer questions, reading a statement to justify their actions. "What is at stake today is the issue of freedom of expression and the independence of the judicial system," said the 24-year-old spokesman, denying the group had insulted Nakamura or incited hatred. According to the activist, the aim was to denounce "a political choice that deliberately sought to promote the dissolution of our ancestral culture". Their lawyers, Mathieu Sassi and Pierre-Vincent Lambert, requested the acquittal of their clients, saying Nakamura had been targeted because of her "vulgarity". Prosecutors requested sentences of up to four months of prison. Nakamura responded to the group's stunt on social media at the time, writing: "You can be racist, but you're not deaf... and that's what really bothers you! I'm suddenly the number one topic of debate -- but what do I really owe you? Nothing." 'Shock public opinion' Nakamura is the world's most listened-to Francophone singer, and her performance on one of Paris's fabled bridges, the Pont des Arts, was among the most-watched moments of the opening ceremony. But when reports began circulating in early 2024 that the Mali- born, Paris-raised superstar was going to perform, far-right politicians and groups vehemently criticised the decision. An appearance by Nakamura, who mixes French with Arabic and Malian slang, would "humiliate" the country, far-right leader Marine Le Pen suggested, taking aim at her supposed "vulgarity" and "the fact that she doesn't sing in French". In March 2024, a dozen members of Les Natifs unfurled the banner targeting Nakamura along the River Seine. They posted a picture of the stunt on social media, and far-right outlets amplified the message. Les Natifs, which has 10,000 followers on Instagram and 19,000 on X, has staged other provocative stunts. In March, the group covered portraits of veiled women on display in a church in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with black sheets. Two people including Stanislas T. were due to appear in court in connection with that case on Thursday. In February, the activists plastered an Air Algerie office in Paris with posters encouraging people with Algerian roots to "re-migrate". The goal for groups like Les Natifs is to "provoke massive reactions and shock public opinion so we have no choice but to talk about them", said Marion Jacquet-Vaillant, an expert on far-right movements in France. Capucine C., 22, who until March 2025 was a "parliamentary assistant" to three far-right National Rally MPs, was among the accused appearing in court. Nakamura's complaint is not the only one stemming from the opening ceremony to head to trial. A French court in May found seven people guilty of bullying Thomas Jolly, the ceremony's artistic director, who is openly gay. Five people are to stand trial in September over similar complaints from Barbara Butch, a French DJ and lesbian activist who starred in a controversial scene during the ceremony.
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
Government prepares the French for new tax increase in 2026
Officially, no decision had yet been made. Only around mid-July will Prime Minister François Bayrou reveal his final decision and present the broad outline for the 2026 budget and his plan to restore public finances over three or four years. That could include a possible referendum on the subject. However, as ongoing negotiations have progressed, a significant shift has already emerged from previous statements: a tax hike will be difficult to avoid. Bercy, the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance, has begun preparing the public for that outcome. On Tuesday, June 3, officials from the Ministry of the Economy and Finance said during a press briefing on the budget preparation timeline that the government's goal was for the majority of the 2026 financial effort to focus on limiting public spending. These saving measures, which were expected to account for most of the planned adjustment, would, however, almost certainly have to be coupled with an increase in tax revenues. Such a prospect is likely to anger the right. "In France, it is never the right time to cut spending; there is a kind of refusal to face the problem," said Senator Jean-François Husson (Les Républicains, right-wing), and general rapporteur on the budget. "But we will have to tackle it." Charles Sitzenstuhl, a Macron-aligned MP, also expressed concern: "I fear that, as with [former prime minister] Michel Barnier, we will start by promising spending cuts only to end up with a tax explosion."
