While the Secretary of State for the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, deplored that “more than 80 parliamentarians” have been targeted since the beginning of the Yellow Vest movement, in a climate of unparliamentary violence, Le Figaro reported that Le Pen has since filed a complaint for “death threats”.
In a tag painted on the wall of the room where she held a meeting, on Saturday, February 9, in Saint-Ébremond-de-Bonfossé, “AIR HAINE. Une balle dans le FRONT” could be read. Translated from French, it reads: “Air of hate. A bullet in the forehead.”
Some 500 National Rally militants had gathered in the multi-purpose hall to listen to Le Pen over the weekend.
The party was quick to react. “As President of the National Rally, formerly Front National, I have the honor to file a complaint for the offense of threats of committing a crime, the attempt of which is punishable by six months imprisonment, in this case death threats,” Marine Le Pen noted in a letter to the prosecutor of the high court of Coutances (Manche).
According to the President of the National Rally, the tag had “probably” been painted the day before the meeting, on Friday. In conference the next day, Marine Le Pen had taken a stand against the violence suffered by parliamentarians since November 17, during Act I by the Yellow Vests. ” We do not attack elected officials,” she said, denouncing “a rise in violence” of which the rightwing has been “victim” of for “so long”.
Before the start of the rally, dozens of left-wing activists had demonstrated, with music and banners, against the arrival of Marine Le Pen in Normandy. Mayor, Gerard Duval, will also file a complaint within a week, according to the court.
Commenting on the current diplomatic row between Paris and Rome, Le Pen said on Monday that Macron was using diplomacy as the means to achieve political ends, pushing the two countries towards a crisis.
“I believe that there is a political use of Emmanuel Macron’s very worrying diplomacy, putting our two countries at risk of crisis,” Le Pen told radio France Inter.
She added with a certain irony that the French president’s reaction toward an Italian leader’s meeting with anti-government protesters in France was not in line with his philosophy of open borders. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio met with the leaders of France’s protest movement last week.
“Emmanuel Macron, who wants the disappearance of borders, who has supported the idea of transnational lists, is scandalized by an Italian activist coming to talk to demonstrators in France,” Le Pen underscored.