No fewer than three French protesters are to face trial in September for allegedly insulting President Emmanuel Macron during his trip to Alsace last week, a prosecutor from the region has said.
RFI reports that Macron received a hostile reception from crowds as he embarked on his first trip out of Paris since signing his unpopular pensions reform into law.
The trio, two men and a woman, who have no criminal history, while a fourth person was arrested but released without charge reportedly shouted insults at the leader and made obscene gestures using the middle finger last Wednesday in the town of Sélestat.
Catherine Sorita-Minard, a Prosecutor explained the trio would appear on a prior admission of guilt for contempt of a person holding public authority.
Article 33 of the French penal code states that "any outrageous expression, terms of contempt or invective that does is ascribed without fact" aimed at a public official, constitutes an insult and can be sanctioned by one year in prison and 15,000 euros fine.
Two contempt proceedings involving Macron were filed during the leader’s first term in office.
One was against a Kanak activist from New Caledonia, while the other involved a 61-year-old pensioner who attended a demonstration.
A woman in northern France will go trial in June on charges of insulting Macron after describing him as 'filth' in a Facebook post.