A 23-year-old climate activist is facing five years in prison and a 75,000 euro (CA$109,500) fine for stealing official portraits of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Félix Vève, seven other climate activists, and one video producer, aged 23 to 36, appeared before the French High Court last month charged with theft after taking down the pictures from two town halls in Paris in February. All official buildings in France display the president’s portrait.
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The actions were part of a campaign called #DecrochonsMacron, or Take Down Macron, launched by direct action group ANV-COP21 to initiate more climate policies from the French government.
When Vève was arrested, he claims he was detained for 10 hours and interrogated without a lawyer. He says he asked for a specific lawyer but the police told him he wasn’t available, although his friends said he was. Vève says they also took his DNA without permission.
ANV-COP21 says that 133 portraits of Macron have been taken down across France, and 57 people face “group theft” charges that carry a maximum five-year prison term. Money laundering and selling counterfeit goods have similar prison terms.
Shortly after taking office in 2017, Macron promised to “make our planet great again” as a reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
But while he looks to be a climate champion internationally, environmental activists say he has taken few concrete steps at home to reduce emissions or help limit a temperature increase to 1.5 C, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
“Macron is the personification of climate inaction,” said Vève. “He made a lot of promises, but we are still waiting for the implementation of those climate policies.”
Vève says the president has excellent communication skills, which allows him to “hide the lack of climate actions behind words.”
Now ANV-COP21 is brandishing the portraits during protests and on Twitter demanding more action on the climate crisis.
When Macron and other G7 leaders met in Biarritz, France in August, protesters appeared in nearby Bayonne holding dozens of the portraits upside down “to show the lack of sense in his policies,” one demonstrator told the Guardian.
French comic book artist Cyril Pedrosa tweeted a picture of a portrait in July: “Hello Emmanuel Macron, your portrait is doing well, and will be given back to you when your government will implement significant and impactful policies to tackle climate and social issues.”
“The deliberate and widely publicized taking down of the portraits of the president of the Republic is a symbolic attack on our democratic institutions and must stop immediately,” said Sébastien Lecornu, French Minister of Local Authorities, in an interview with the French broadcaster France 24 in the summer. “Respect the Republic,” he said.
In court, Vève and his friend activists argued that their actions are “legitimate civil disobedience.”
Vève didn’t attempt to make his displeasure known with Macron directly. “There’s no point,” he said. “We want him to listen to scientists, not us. What matters is what will come out of the #DecrochonsMacron campaign.”
Last month, climate protesters who stole portraits of Macron in Lyon were acquitted. The judge recognized the president’s portraits have “strong symbolic value” but said that the theft was justified because of the severity of the environmental emergency, reports the Guardian.
The first trial over the Macron portrait thefts happened in May in the eastern town of Bourg-en-Bresse. An environmental campaigner was fined 222 euros ($324) and five others received suspended fines.
Originally from a small town near Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France, Vève admitted that he had never thought his activism would have taken him to the High Court.
“Being interrogated was a traumatic experience,” said Vève. “The waiting, the questioning in the darkroom… I am lucky to have the support of my friends and family.” On the day of the trial, 250 supporters gathered outside the courthouse.
But Vève has also received a lot of negative comments from strangers. “How is taking down portraits helping the planet? (…) They are more things to do, this is incredibly stupid!” one person commented on Facebook.
Yet, as Vève patiently awaits judgment, expected on October 16, he says he doesn’t regret his actions and isn’t going to stop protesting. The student of Sciences Po Paris University (also Macron’s alma mater) believes that collective activism is the key to having an effect on government policy.
“Climate marches are open doors to climate engagement because they speak to everyone and anyone can join,” he said. “Non-violent climate actions like the marches are planting seeds in people’s minds about the urgency to take action.”
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