French Woman Faces Trial For ‘Insulting’ President Macron On Facebook

A French woman faces trial for ‘insulting’ President Macron on Facebook.

Glamtush reports that a 50-year-old woman, identified as Valerie, has been arrested in France after referring to French President Emmanuel Macron as “garbage” in a Facebook post.

Daily Mail reports that the woman is facing a criminal trial for publicly insulting the French leader over his decision to force a pension reform, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

The woman risks a fine of 12,000 euros but not a prison sentence if convicted at the trial due to be held in June.

According to the report, she was arrested on Friday and held in custody for questioning after the state’s local administrative office filed a complaint over her Facebook post, the prosecutor in the northern town of Saint Omer, Mehdi Benbouzid, told AFP.

The complaint focused on a post on her Facebook page made on March 21, the day before Macron gave a lunchtime interview to TF1 television to defend his controversial pension reforms that have sparked nationwide protests.

“This piece of filth is going to address you at 1:00 pm… it’s always on television that we see this filth,” she wrote.

The woman, in her 50s, had been a supporter of the 2018-2019 “Yellow Vest” protests that shook Macron during his first mandate.

She stands accused of “insulting the president of the republic” and will stand trial on June 20 in Saint Omer, the prosecutor said.

“They want to make an example of me,” the woman told La Voix du Nord regional newspaper which first reported the accusations.

The woman, named by the paper as Valerie, said she was astonished when she answered the knock on the door on Friday morning to find police had come to arrest her.

“I asked them if it was a joke, I had never been arrested,” she said. “I am not public enemy number one.”

Human rights laws have complained about police violence and arbitrary arrests, as Mr Macron sends paramilitary units onto the streets to try and quell the violence.

Prosecutors and the Pas-de-Calais prefecture confirmed that an investigation had been opened into Valerie’s Facebook post.

A statement from the prefecture said it has been ‘opened following a complaint filed by the sub-prefect of Saint-Omer with the police station after he became aware of offensive photos and publications targeting the President of the Republic on social media networks’.