An “ignominious” illustration. The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced this Friday that the public prosecutor of Poitiers (Vienna) had been seized, at his request, after the distribution on social networks, of a poster representing the police with a swastika . “On my instructions, the prefect of Vienne contacted the public prosecutor following the distribution of this poster,” indicated Gérald Darmanin in a tweet.
This illustration produced by the “Poitiers antifasciste” collective calls for participation in the “unitary march against racism, for social justice and against police violence”, declared in the prefecture and organized on Saturday in around fifty cities in France by representatives of France Insoumise and the Independent Workers’ Party.
“A message that could call for violence against the police”
The poster relayed on social networks shows a black shoe, bearing the logo of the “Poitiers antifasciste” collective, about to crush a snake whose head is marked with a swastika and topped with a hat bearing the logo of the National Police.
In a press release published this Friday, the prefect of Vienne denounced a poster “which seriously insults the National Police by associating it with the swastika, emblem of the German Nazi Party, recognized as a criminal and fascist organization”. “This shocking and hateful poster seriously insults the national police” and “expresses a message that could call for violence against the police,” added the prefect, who considers in this respect that its distribution on social networks “constitutes the communication of an outrageous expression towards the national police and undermines the honorability of the police of the Republic”.
He indicated that he had contacted the Poitiers public prosecutor under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for “the offense of public insult” and “the offense of displaying insignia or emblems reminiscent of those of organizations responsible for crimes against humanity.”