‘Macron in Hitler’s Image’: This Picture Cost the Frenchman Dearly

The court in Toulon, France, has fined an activist €10,000 for depicting Emmanuel Macron in the form of Adolf Hitler on a billboard, Euronews reports.

62-year-old Michel-Ange Florin was convicted of publicly insulting the head of state. Following the verdict, he announced his intention to appeal, asserting that the court violated his right to caricature. “I can’t believe it,” he wrote on Twitter. “The right to caricature was buried in Toulon.”

Florin's lawyer, Bérangère Tournen, stated that “the president, who zealously defends freedom of speech, believes that this freedom ends with his person.”

French President Macron sued Florin at the end of July after a billboard was displayed in the streets of Toulon showing the country’s leader in the form of Hitler. Next to the image of the politician in Nazi uniform, against the backdrop of the Third Reich flag, was the text: “Obey. Get vaccinated.” This poster's creator opposed the tightening of quarantine measures in the country.