A feminist activist who pretended to be a photographer managed to break through the ring of security services at a huge international ceremony in Paris and as part of a peaceful protest disrupt the convoy of vehicles with US President Donald Trump.
With thousands of police and security personnel deployed across the French capital, questions arose over how the woman and two other Femen activists approached a large number of world leaders on the Champs Elysees to mark the 100th anniversary of the armistice that signaled the end of World War I. .
Photographers accredited to the French president's palace noticed that one woman among them was using a false identity, said Ludovik Maren, a photographer who is head of the media liaison committee with the presidential palace.
The photographers alerted officials in the office of the president, as well as the police, and the woman was taken away, Maren said. However, soon she was the one who ran down the Champs Elysees, right in front of Trump's motorcade, shouting: "Fake peacemaker!".
She was then caught with two other "Femena" demonstrators who were in a crowd of onlookers along that boulevard. According to Ina Shevchenko, head of "Femena", the words "False peacemaker" were written on the bare chests of all three.
A court official said all three were charged with "sexual exhibitionism".
Shevchenko did not want to comment on the trick with the fake photographer. She said that all three arrested activists were in areas open to citizens and that their actions were peaceful.
Maren, a photographer who heads the presidential palace media liaison committee, expressed concern that a woman had "usurped the identity" of a legitimate photographer to obtain a permit for a high-security event, which could have negative consequences for genuine photographers seeking permits for events. where the president is.
French President Emmanuel Macron's office declined to comment on how the woman was accredited using a false identity.
A Paris police official said authorities were investigating. The Minister of the Interior, Kristof Castane, tried to downplay the importance of the case, and BFM television stated that the women were unarmed and that the safety of the rally participants was "in no way threatened".
"Femena" activists have previously broken through security at important gatherings and protested in front of Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and others.
Shevchenko said the aim of today's protest in Paris was to "expose the hypocrisy" of holding a peace celebration with leaders like Trump and Putin who "represent everything but peace".
She singled out criticism of Trump for his "aggressive attitude towards European leaders and hostility" towards multilateral cooperation.
Macron has also criticized the kind of nationalism that Trump advocates, but his office insisted on the importance of inviting the US president and other leaders over their countries' role in World War I.
Shevchenko rejected the charge of "sexual exhibitionism", explaining that the French authorities are thereby "saying that women's bodies are considered sexual by definition. We are asking for the opposite: that women's bodies are sexual only when women choose to be, and can be political when we choose to be." .
Gallery
Bonus video:
