Emmanuel Macron's wax statue stolen from the Grévin Museum: "There may be legal action," but "we felt it was necessary to take this risk," explains Greenpeace France.

The director general of Greenpeace France indicated that "something spectacular" was needed to bring back into the public debate "this question of France's position with regard to Russia and Ukraine."

"The statue will be returned. It's a loan. We're not planning to keep it; it was to mark the occasion and bring the discussion back into the public debate," explains Jean-François Julliard, director general of Greenpeace France, who instigated the theft of the wax statue of Emmanuel Macron from the Grévin Museum in Paris on Monday.

"It was worth the effort because the issues are essential for the ecological future of France and Europe, so there may be legal proceedings, it's very likely, but we're used to taking responsibility for that, going to court to defend ourselves to explain our actions and why it seemed necessary to take this risk and put ourselves at odds with the law in relation to the importance of the issues we're denouncing," continues Jean-François Julliard.

"Something spectacular was needed to bring this question of France's position on Russia and Ukraine back into the public debate," explains Jean-François Julliard. "The symbolic act of bringing the statue of Emmanuel Macron to the Russian embassy was intended to denounce what, in our opinion, is Emmanuel Macron's double talk regarding the situation in Ukraine," he continues. "On the one hand, Emmanuel Macron appears in the media as a great supporter of Ukraine, and then there is the reality of economic exchanges between France and Russia, which are an aberration for peace and a setback on issues of ecological transition," justifies Jean-François Julliard.

"These trades are taking place in sectors that are problematic for the energy transition," assures the CEO of Greenpeace France. "It's the import of liquefied natural gas. In 2024, France will be the leading European importer of LNG from Russia. This is therefore inconsistent with France's position supporting Ukraine and it is an ecological aberration. The same is true for chemical fertilizers, whose import volumes increased by 86% between 2021 and 2023, and the same is true for the uranium issue, where the entire French nuclear industry is tied hand and foot to Rosatom, which is the Russian nuclear player ."