A critic of French president Francois Hollande and the country’s ruling elite dumped tonnes of horse manure in front of the national parliament building in Paris today in a protest against French politics.
“Out with Hollande and the entire political class. Long live the Sixth Republic,” read a message on the side of the man’s articulated truck. France’s present-day Fifth Republic was founded in 1958 with Charles de Gaulle its first president.
Police detained the unnamed perpetrator before he emptied his entire truckload of dung at the steps of the Bourbon Palace, the building that houses the lower house of parliament on the Seine river in downtown Paris, witnesses said. Authorities later began a clean-up operation.
Hollande, who has been the subject of magazine allegations of a love affair with an actress, has been battling to restore the fortunes of Europe’s second-largest economy. He currently has the lowest popularity ratings of any leader in modern-day France.
Reuters