French politician's outrage at man wiping bottom on tricolore

Trousers down: veterans' groups led complaints about the photograph
12 April 2012

The French justice minister called for legal action against a man caught in a photo wiping his bottom with the tricolore.

Michele Alliot-Marie said it was unacceptable for the national flag to be treated with such disrespect.

"Presumably the law has the legal means to punish such an intolerable act against the French flag," her spokesman said.

The photograph shows a man with his trousers around his ankles while apparently wiping his bottom with the flag in a street.

It appeared in free newspaper Metro last month and was displayed in the "politically incorrect" category of a competition run by media retailer FNAC, but was withdrawn in the southern city of Nice after complaints from veterans' groups.

"As soon as we saw that people were shocked by the image, we withdrew it from the list of winners, with the photographer's consent, and we have not exhibited it," said a FNAC spokeswoman.

An MP alerted the government, but under French law it is only an offence to insult the flag in a public event, so the man could not be prosecuted.

"If the existing law proves incomplete in this regard, it should be revised," said Ms Allicot-Marie's spokesman.

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