French President Emmanuel Macron is suing a billboard owner who displayed the French president as Adolf Hitler, protesting COVID-19 restrictions, AFP first reported.
According to the Guardian, the posters depicted Macron with the infamous mustache in full uniform with a swastika armband that read, LREM – La République En Marche. The poster read, "Obey. Get vaccinated."
Michel-Ange Flori owns roughly 400 billboards in the southeastern Var region of France and has created many provocative banners.
He confirmed he had been summoned by local police in a Tweet. "I have just learnt that I will be heard at the Toulon police station tomorrow following a complaint by the president of the Republic," he wrote.
“I was surprised and shocked,” Flori told a local paper.
Flori defended himself from the charges saying, "You see Hitler, but you can see Stalin, or I see Charlie Chaplin in The Dictator."
The French interior ministry stated that 161,000 people have protested across the country against COVID-19 restrictions. Several of these protests had banners of Macron depicted as Hitler as well, according to Euronews.
Many protestors drew parallels between the restrictions and the Holocaust. Some wore a yellow star that read "nonvaccinated."
The French interior ministry stated that 161,000 people have protested across the country against COVID-19 restrictions. Several of these protests had banners of Macron depicted as Hitler as well, according to Euronews.
Many protestors drew parallels between the restrictions and the Holocaust. Some wore a yellow star that read "nonvaccinated."
“This comparison is abhorrent,” said Joseph Szwarc, 94, a Holocaust survivor who spoke as France commemorated the victims of racist or antisemitic acts by the Vichy government, according to the New York Times.
“I wore the star, I know what it is, I still have it in my flesh,” Szwarc said at a ceremony in Paris.