In Angoulême
Thirty five years after the arrival of President François Mitterrand in Angoulême, the arrival of Emmanuel Macron at the 47th edition of the International Festival of Comics could not fail to arouse excitement and apprehension. This trip “on the ground” logically created a wind of panic among all festival-goers, Angoumoisins, and of course on social networks.
Should we be wary of comic book authors, whose policies often pay the price and whom many deem uncontrollable, cool or both? The photo that designer Jul posted on social media suggests that it is. We see the President of the Republic, all smiles, brandishing the T-shirt that the author has just given him. The drawing is however explicit: the festival mascot appears disgusted, a bloody bandage on the face. And the slogan “BD 2020” has been corrected to red to turn into “LBD 2020”, named after the infamous “Defense ball launchers”. Several protesters have been seriously injured in recent months by these weapons “Non-lethal” employed by the police.
Jul was quite proud of the shot. “The values of insolence are pretty solid among comic book authors like me, he explains to Figaro. It’s the role of artists to be hypersensitive to the world around them. I know that I played a little trick in my way to Emmanuel Macron by offering him this T-shirt. It’s a kind of itch. A little pig ride … At the same time Emmanuel Macron is clever, he knows that the challenge can be digested, integrated into his speech, if he knows how to take it with enough intelligence and humor. “
Asked a little later, Emmanuel Macron said he “Challenged the term police violence”, ensuring that “Violence is first in society”. “However from where I am I must defend creativity, freedom of expression, including insolence and including the creation of artists who say things (…) with which I do not agree, said the president again. And if there are police and gendarmes who do not respect the ethics, and I have said it very clearly, I hope that they will be prosecuted and punished in an exemplary manner. ”
Three of the main police unions protested Thursday against AFP after the dissemination of this image, believing that the presidential gesture was “scandalous”.
“There is a lot of anger and misunderstanding. It doesn’t go through the ranks at all ”, reacted Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of the SGP-FO Unit.
Fabien Vanhemelryck, secretary general of Alliance, also expressed the anger of the police: “We expect something more from a President of the Republic whom he poses with a T-shirt implying that the police are spoiling people. The problem is not the T-shirt, which by the way, in any case, we do not endorse but it was not the debate in this case! ”, explained Mr. Vanhemelryck. “Freedom of expression should not be a pretext. The fact that the president poses with this T-shirt (…) is shocking ”, he said.
In addition to the visit of the Saft company in the early morning, a working lunch was included in the program of the presidential trip in the company of sector players, artists, representatives, editors … There were several authors, confirmed or in the making , like Lewis Trondheim, Enki Bilal, the designer Jul, Cécile Bidault (The bark of things, published by Warum), illustrator Cy (Cyrielle Evrard) who works on YouTube, Denis Bajram, president of the League of Professional Authors, illustrator Samantha Bailly. The officials were also present as the scriptwriter and author Marc Antoine Boidin, vice-president of the National Union of Authors and Composers, Franck Bondoux, the director of the international comic book festival in Angoulême, Pierre Lungheretti (director of the Cité de la BD ), Bruno Racine (author of a comic book report). And then, representatives of publishers such as Vincent Montagne, CEO of Media Participations, Jacques Glénat, founder of Editions Glénat, Charlotte Gallimard, director of Casterman, Benoît Preteseille, president of the Syndicat des Editeurs Alternatifs, and Christel Hoolans, general director of Editions Dargaud Lombard. On the menu: initiate negotiations between publishers who continue to beat sales records and comic book designers and scriptwriters whose situation continues to deteriorate. Explosive subject.
“The explosion did not take place during this lunch”, testifies Vincent Montagne, CEO of Media participations who keeps the memory of a meeting “Rather sympathetic and useful”. “We quickly found common ground between authors and publishers, he continues. In fact I have the feeling that it did not explode because we quickly realized that we belong to the same sector. Many authors were present who told me that they were not in favor of self-publishing, but that they needed publishers. “
If there has not been an “explosion”, the authors believe that lunch is far from having resolved the problems. The designer Lewis Trondheim is delighted that “President Macron has acted on the principle of a reform to create a status for authors”. “But we are waiting for the Prime Minister’s speech around February 15”, he procrastinates. For his part, Jul found that this lunch was “A fun and deserving moment of celebration”. “But at the same time it was a strange moment, like a stage very far from the problems which agitate the world, he continues. I consider comics as a sounding board. I did not want to reduce this lunch to the mere mention of categorical demands. I also spoke on subjects that made me angry, on ecology in particular. I talked about it in a polite and virulent way. I think it’s also the role of the authors to bring up this kind of subject on these special occasions. ” A successful operation if we believe the success of his photo on social networks.
“See also – Police violence:” We must be extremely vigilant, “says Marc Fesneau
– .
