Taken to task in front of his chocolate factory during a demonstration hostile to Emmanuel Macron, this 29-year-old young man suffers from “one or two broken ribs”, “three sprained fingers” and a cerebral “hematoma”, according to his father.
This is a case that arouses the indignation of a large part of the political class. A great-nephew of Brigitte Macron was attacked in Amiens, Monday May 15, after the interview with the Head of State on TF1. Aged 29, Jean-Baptiste Trogneux was knocked to the ground by several people in front of the Jean Trogneux chocolate factory, a renowned institution in the Picardy city of which he is the general manager. Eight people were quickly arrested. Four of them are due to appear in court on Wednesday. Franceinfo looks back on what we know about this attack.
The facts: a beating during a “casserolade”
The assault occurred during a rally of opponents of the pension reform, Monday around 10 p.m., in front of the shop in downtown Amiens. “About forty demonstrators were there, after the president’s speech on TF1”, says Jean-Baptiste’s father, Jean-Alexandre Trogneux, interviewed by France Bleu Picardie. Some wanted to pile up garbage cans and started to “drumming on the doors and on the windows”, he told AFP. It was then that they recognized the young man who, living above the store, was returning to his home.
“A dozen people approached him, started insulting him,” according to the father of the victim, absent at the time of the facts. “And then one, more pissed off than the others, punched him in the face, followed by several behind. And there was an outburst.”
“A dozen of them threw themselves on him.”
Jean-Alexandre Trogneux, father of the victimat France Bleu Picardie
Jean-Alexandre Trogneux, himself president of the family business, says his son curled up on the ground to protect himself from blows, until neighbors arrived. “It is perhaps thanks to them that we avoided the catastrophe”he estimated with France 3. LThe attackers all fled. Quoted by AFP, he points out that the attackers also insulted “the president, his wife and our family”.
Returning home Tuesday late afternoon after a visit to the hospital, Jean-Baptiste Trogneux suffers from“one or two broken ribs” and of “three sprained fingers”according to his father. “On the brain scan, there is a hematoma, which we hope will remain benign”he adds. Guest of franceinfo on Tuesday evening, the UDI mayor of Amiens, Brigitte Fouré, was able to exchange with the young man by SMS. According to her, it is “shocked, but he told me he was going to recover”.
The investigation: four suspects in court
Shortly after the events, eight people were arrested on Monday evening, franceinfo learned from a police source. According to the mayor of Amiens, the city’s CCTV cameras made it possible to “spot the aggressors” and stop them. Its security assistant, Hubert de Jenlis, told AFP that the chocolate factory is subject to police surveillance at each demonstration and is now under video surveillance. “transferred to the national police”.
The suspects are a 16-year-old girl and seven older men (up to 35), some of whom are already known to the police, according to a source familiar with the matter. Four people were left free and four must be brought to justice on Wednesday, in immediate appearance for three of them and with the juvenile judge for the other, according to a police source contacted by France Télévisions. The Amiens prosecutor’s office has not made any communication on the case at this stage.
Three of the freed suspects told RMC on Wednesday that they had been arrested after only “defended” a person “push” by Jean-Baptiste Trogneux on a dustbin placed in front of the chocolate factory. “Brigitte Macron’s nephew bumped into our comrade, we came to separate and, when we left, a BAC car came”advance these young people, minimizing the violence suffered by the victim.
The context: a chocolate factory regularly targeted
According to Jean-Alexandre Trogneux, the aggression of his son constitutes the “high point” of a series “amalgams”, insults and threats against the chocolate factory. Located on a pedestrian street in the heart of Amiens, with an old-fashioned facade that promotes an old house of “six generations”the Trogneux boutique has been regularly targeted by opponents since the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. “For six years, we have had to bear all the consequences”deplores Jean-Alexandre Trogneux to France 3. “At first we had customer boycotts because it ‘went into Macron’s pocket’, which is false. The company belongs 100% to my son and, before, it was mine and no one else”, he hammers. According to the national business register, the company’s capital is 57.37% owned by the victim’s father and 41.95% by his grandfather, Jean-Claude Trogneux.
During the demonstrations of the ‘yellow vests’, this nephew of Brigitte Macron had already denounced insults and threats. “We received dog poo, papers marked: ‘Boom’, more insults, death threats”he says today at the microphone of France 3. In April, during the night of the promulgation of the pension reform, the Lille shop of the Trogneux chocolate factory was targeted by three projectiles, which cracked the windows, according to France Bleu Nord.
The reactions: the political class outraged by the “stupidity”
On his arrival at a European summit in Iceland, Emmanuel Macron denounced “brutality, violence, stupidity” which was faced “that young daddy”. “He was assaulted because he is our great-nephew”he estimated, specifying that he had called him, Monday evening, with his wife. In “constant report” with her great-nephew since the facts, Brigitte Macron has, in a statement sent to AFPlamented “cowardice, stupidity and violence” aggressors.
“As an uncle, I consider these actions absolutely unacceptable and, as President of the Republic, unspeakable.”
Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republicto the press, from Reykjavik (Iceland)
Elected officials from all sides gave their support to Jean-Baptiste Trogneux, starting with local deputies. “We are talking here about someone who makes chocolate, who has never been integrated into the political debate, who has never wanted to get involved in politics and who, quite simply, is from the same family as a member of the family of the President of the Republic”underlined the related Renaissance deputy of this constituency of the Somme, Barbara Pompili. “You don’t defend democracy by attacking a chocolate maker”reacted the rebellious deputy of the Somme, François Ruffin. “I also regularly buy their macaroons, as a wink, when I offer gifts to my political guests”he slipped.
Within Nupes, Jean-Luc Mélenchon reacted in a more calculated way: “Commentators indifferent to the attempted murders and racist attacks against rebels summon me to speak out on the attack in Amiens against the chocolatier Trogneux. I express my sympathy to him and join my protest to his. I ask Macron and Madame to do the same for our attacked or threatened friends without reserving their concern for Zemmour alone when he was molested”, he said on Twitter. The then columnist had himself recounted having received a presidential phone call in 2020 after an attack suffered in a street in Paris.
On the right, the president of the Les Républicains party, Eric Ciotti, denounced “unbearable aggression” and called for a sanction “relentless for these aggressors”. “Obviously a red line is crossed”abounded, on franceinfo, the spokesperson for the National Rally group in the Assembly, Laure Lavalette. “No fight will ever justify such savagery”she hammered, claiming a “exemplary firmness”.