2023: Emmanuel Macron insulted
On March 24, a fifty-year-old resident of Saint-Martin-lez-Tatinghem (Pas-de-Calais) was surprised to see three police officers arrive at her home and take her into custody. His wrong? Having treated, on his Facebook page, Emmanuel Macron of“garbage”. A complaint was lodged by the sub-prefecture of the department for “contempt of person of public authority” et “insult to the President of the Republic”. The trial is scheduled for June 20. The woman faces a fine of 12,000 euros.
2016: François Hollande insulted
“Asshole! » « Manure! ” ” Good-for-nothing ! » It is a real line of insults, accompanied by calls for resignation, which welcomes François Hollande, on February 27, 2016, during his inaugural visit to the Agricultural Show. Remarks, launched by exhibitors, that will not be noted by the Head of State. The president of the FNSEA, the main agricultural union, will nevertheless present « excuses » the next day « It is not respectable, neither for the function nor for the person”, will estimate Xavier Beulin, even if, in his eyes, ” it was simply the expression of anger, of despair..
2008: Nicolas Sarkozy offended
On August 28, 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy was received, during a trip to Laval (Mayenne), by a Left Party activist brandishing a sign on which was written: « Casse-toi, pauv’con! » A reference to the formula launched by the Head of State to a visitor to the Agricultural Show (again), six months earlier. Sentenced to a suspended fine of 30 euros for insulting the President of the Republic, the activist will obtain from the European Court of Human Rights, in 2013, a conviction of France for sanction “disproportionate”. The offense of offense will be abolished the same year by the legislator.
1963: Charles de Gaulle placarded
The 1is April 1963, a 22-year-old law student was fined 500 francs for shouting ” retired ! » during the passage on the Champs-Elysées of the procession of Charles de Gaulle on the occasion of the ceremonies of 11-November. “The terms used call into question the ability of the President of the Republic to fulfill the high functions for which he is responsible”, then blames him for the seventeenth correctional chamber of the Seine. The person concerned acknowledges the facts without problem: he did not consider the expression to be offensive.
Around 1906: Armand Fallières tied up
The writer Léon Daudet (1867-1942), son of Alphonse and pen of the far-right newspaper French Action, was a feared portrait painter. He nicknamed Armand Fallières, President of the Republic between 1906 and 1913, “Big Armand”reports Bruno Fuligni, in his Small dictionary of political insults (The Editor, 2016). “The huge one, with feet of fat, arms of lard, crusty navel, described the writer. His place is in the market. It is made to be probed, weighed, then attached to a lanyard, taken to the slaughterhouse, alas! » No lawsuit was filed against him. On the contrary: Armand Fallières invited him to dinner.