The artwork can be seen in a car park in Avignon. This is not the first time that the street artist in question has mocked the French head of state. He had previously been sued by another person depicted in one of his paintings. Similarly, this is not the first instance of Emmanuel Macron being portrayed as Hitler, with the previous case also resulting in a police report.

The picture of French President Emmanuel Macron portrayed as Hitler, with the caption „no thanks”, has prompted a huge outcry. The painting was created on 2 April by a French graffiti artist known as Lekto, and was located in a car park in the north-east of Avignon, the France Bleu portal wrote.

What makes the picture interesting and politically charged is that the French President’s face bears the infamous number “49.3” positioned to resemble the Nazi dictator’s moustache. The graffiti artist was referring to Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, the rule on which the French government adopted the bill on pension reform without a parliamentary vote. The move has triggered heated political debate as well as strikes and protests.

The artist, Lekto, signed the painting and called it a satirical piece. The prefect of the Vaucluse department ordered the painting to be removed as soon as possible, and it was washed off the wall at dawn on 4 April, the French local newspaper Le Dauphine Libere reported.

This was not the first mockery of the French head of state by Lekto. Last summer, in the same Avignon car park, the artist depicted Emmanuel Macron as a marionette puppet, whose strings are being pulled by French economist Jacques Attali.

A street art mural in the southeastern city of Avignon depicted French President Emmanuel Macron as a puppet controlled by Jacques Attali, an economist of Jewish origin.

It was removed on Friday after it was denounced as blatantly antisemitic.

Source: https://t.co/pvfFvNXmew pic.twitter.com/Esvnh5aCFA

— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) June 26, 2022

The Jewish-born economist filed a police report against the graffiti artist for the painting, which he says incited anti-Semitic discrimination, violence and hatred. Lekto is due to stand trial on 14 September.

Regarding Macron’s depiction as Hitler, it has happened before. In 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic, Michel-Ange Flori, an entrepreneur owning bulletins criticised the vaccination policy of the government on two giant posters, depicting the head of state dressed in the Nazi dictator’s uniform, wearing Hitler’s characteristic moustache. In the caption, he wrote „Obey! Get vaccinated!”

Existe t-il un vaccin contre la macronite aigüe ? La France va t-elle devenir le Macronistan ? pic.twitter.com/Vl7WKx9LC1

— Flori Michel-Ange (@MichelFlori) July 16, 2021

That case also ended up in a court, after the president reported him for public insult against the person of the French Republic, and the Toulon prosecutor’s office ordered an investigation.

Michel-Ange Flori, who was 62 then, was calm in the face of the legal proceedings, as he believed that the poster and its caption were within the bounds of free expression. The Court of Cassation agreed, and it annulled the decision by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, which had sentenced Mr Flori to a fine of 5000 euros. After the appeal filed by Mr Flori, the Court of Cassation ruled in his favour, saying that the billboard’s owner had not exceeded the limits of freedom of expression, Le Point writes.