French MPs warn over attacks on constituency offices
Twenty MPs from President Emmanuel Macron's ruling LaREM party have signed a tribune to denounce a spate of attacks on the constituency offices of MPs.
Issued on: Modified:
“We are becoming used to the intolerable,” warned the MPs on the website of French radio station Franceinfo. “Our constituency offices are boarded up or smashed up, MPs are insulted on social media because they voted in a certain way, some have had their homes targeted or even set alight."
The constituency offices of a group of members of parliament for the ruling LaREM party have been targeted in recent days following the vote in parliament in favour of the controversial EU-Canada trade deal, known as Ceta.
Anti-Ceta graffiti was daubed on the walls of some constituency offices and straw and eggs as well as rotten fish were thrown at the facades.
Yellow Vests
Several MPs were the subject of abuse on Twitter after having voted in favour of the accord.
Farmers unions claimed responsibility for much of the recent protest.
They claim the Ceta accord will lead to the disappearance of livestock farming and more widely European standards.
On Saturday the constituency office of LaREM's MP for Perpignan in southern France was attacked. The attack was not related to the Ceta accord but took place on the sidelines of a Yellow Vest protest.
At the height of the Yellow Vest movement during the winter, there were more than 80 attacks on the homes and offices of MPs, including an attempted arson attack on the home of the Speaker of the House, Richard Ferrand.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe