Activists steal Emmanuel Macron waxwork from French museum to highlight trade with Russia

Environmental activists took a waxwork of President Emmanuel Macron from a Paris museum to protest about France’s business ties with Russia and climate change.

Environmental activists melted away from a Paris museum with a waxwork of President Emmanuel Macron to protest about France’s business ties with Russia and climate change.

Greenpeace France said in a statement Monday that they had “borrowed” the model from the Grévin Museum to highlight gas, chemical fertilizer and nuclear power contracts between the two countries which “finance the war in Ukraine.”

“Despite Macron’s international speeches of solidarity with Ukraine, France continues to line Moscow’s pockets,” the statement said. “As long as these dependencies persist, efforts to restore peace to Ukraine and strengthen the strategic sovereignty of France and the E.U. will remain futile,” it added.

Activists entered the museum as regular visitors, grabbed the statue and covered it with a blanket before rushing it out towards a waiting car, a Greenpeace spokesperson told Reuters.

The waxwork outside the Russian Embassy in Paris.Thomas Samson / AFP via Getty Images“There was no confrontation with museum security because we had planned everything carefully to ensure it happened quickly,” the spokesperson said, adding the museum had not been made aware of the action beforehand.