Latest news with #Jean-FrancoisJulliard
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why did activists steal the wax statue of Emmanuel Macron from Paris' Musée Grévin?
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.' 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.
Euronews
3 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
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.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Macron waxwork stolen from Paris museum by Greenpeace activists
A wax figure of Emmanuel Macron was stolen from a Paris waxwork museum by several people claiming to be Greenpeace environmental activists. According to police sources, two women and a man entered the Musée Grévin, in central Paris and left through an emergency exit with the statue, worth €40,000 (£33,700), hidden under a blanket. The activists took the waxwork to the Russian embassy and stood it on the street in protest against France's economic ties with Russia. Jean-Francois Julliard, the director general of Greenpeace France, said: 'For us, France is playing a double game. Emmanuel Macron embodies this double discourse – he supports Ukraine but encourages French companies to continue trading with Russia. 'We are targeting Emmanuel Macron specifically because he has a particular responsibility in this situation,' he added, saying that the president should be the first in European discussions to end trade agreements between Russia and European countries. France, along with Britain, has been at the forefront of attempts to forge a European 'coalition of the willing' to provide security guarantees to Ukraine and enable peace negotiations with Russia. But in March, Greenpeace France released a scathing report that accused Paris of indirectly supporting Russia's war in Ukraine through continued trade in fossil fuels, fertilisers and nuclear materials. While Mr Macron has pledged billions of euros in aid to Ukraine and reaffirmed sanctions against Russia, Greenpeace claims that France remains a major importer of Russian liquefied natural gas, fertilisers and uranium. In 2024, France became the largest European importer of Russian liquefied natural gas, with imports increasing by 80 per cent compared with 2023, according to the report. Russian companies benefitted from the deal to the tune of €3.1 billion despite declining domestic gas consumption, Greenpeace claimed. The report also underscored the EU's broader dependence on Russian fossil fuels, which have generated €206 billion in revenue for Moscow since the war began, exceeding financial aid provided to Ukraine. France's reliance on Russian chemical fertilisers further complicates its stance, Greenpeace says. Between 2021 and 2023, imports of Russian fertilisers surged by 86 per cent as domestic production faltered because of gas shortages. The NGO warns that these imports indirectly finance Russia's war effort through export taxes imposed by the Kremlin. In the nuclear sector, French collaboration with Russia's state-owned nuclear giant Rosatom remains intact despite the war. Greenpeace highlighted Rosatom's dual role as a civilian and military entity, accusing it of complicity in war crimes at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Despite its strategic importance to Russia's regime, neither France nor the EU has sanctioned Rosatom. Greenpeace accused France of hiding behind Hungary's veto on sanctioning Rosatom while continuing lucrative contracts with the company.
France 24
4 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Greenpeace steals Macron wax figure for anti-Russia protest
According to a police source, two women and a man entered the Grevin Museum posing as tourists and, once inside, changed their clothes to pass for workers. The activists slipped out through an emergency exit with the 40,000-euro-statue, which they had covered with a blanket. The Greenpeace activists then placed the figure in front of the Russian embassy in a stunt meant to urge France to stop gas and fertiliser imports from Russia. "For us, France is playing a double game," said Jean-Francois Julliard, head of Greenpeace France. "Emmanuel Macron embodies this double discourse: he supports Ukraine but encourages French companies to continue trading with Russia." Julliard said Greenpeace targeted Macron because he had a particular responsibility, adding that the French president "should be the first" among European leaders to end trade contracts with Russia. France has been one of the most vocal supporters of Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Macron has taken the lead in seeking to forge a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine, after US President Donald Trump shocked the world by directly negotiating with Russia. mca-sm-abe-as/ah/jxb
