An unidentified rioter veiled the head of a statue of St. Joan of Arc near the city center of Toulouse, appearing to mimic a hijab, along with a Palestinian flag, while video from Paris shows vandals climbing and putting political stickers on a statue of the patroness of France as violence raged across the country over the weekend.
Images posted across social media from Toulouse show an unidentified masked man, who appears to be African, standing on the bronze statue located on Place Jeanne d’Arc after placing a yellow vest on the saint’s head in the shape of a hijab and the Palestinian flag on the statue’s side. Separate video from Paris shows another unidentified reportedly foreign rioter being cheered on by a mob after climbing on and placing political stickers on the statue of the country’s patron saint in the Place des Pyramides.
Video from Saturday evening in Toulouse shows a courageous yet to be identified young man removing the yellow vest and flag from the statue.
Several X users denounced the defiling of the St. Joan of Arc statues and called for the country’s Christian heritage to be respected. Some also noted that this is the perfect illustration of the country’s collapse.
Over the weekend, mass riots broke out across France, known as the “eldest daughter of the Church,” purportedly in protest over the state of schools and the cost of living, with an estimated 550,000 people taking to the streets, with many breaking into and looting stores and businesses, as well as setting historic buildings and other property ablaze, per The Guardian. As of this writing, over 1,800 have been arrested.
Even France’s leftist president, Emmanuel Macron, felt compelled to declare via X that there is “no room for violence in our republic” and vowed that all responsible would be prosecuted.
France has seen a massive uptick in violence in recent years. Indeed, earlier this month, initially peaceful student protests quickly turned into chaos as young people set fires, injured teachers, and torched cars, resulting in 400 schools being closed across the country.