Anger in France as bust of Charles de Gaulle is covered in paint and defaced with the word ‘slaver’

• The bust of Charles de Gaulle was vandalised in Hautmont near Belgian border
• Statues are being toppled and removed globally amid worldwide BLM protests
• President Emmanuel Macron said France would not erase ‘a trace’ of its history 

Vandals chucked orange paint over a bust of Charles de Gaulle and defaced it with the word ‘slaver’ prompting outrage from right-wing politicians.

The bust of de Gaulle – France’s wartime resistance leader and later president – was vandalised in the northern town of Hautmont near the Belgian border.

The act comes as statues are being toppled and removed globally amid worldwide anti-racism protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the US.

Vandals chucked orange paint over a bust of Charles de Gaulle (left) in France and defaced it with the word ‘slaver’ (right) prompting outrage from right-wing politicians

President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Sunday that France would not erase ‘a trace’ of its history and vowed it would not remove statues of its historical figures.

De Gaulle is seen as a national hero in France for resisting the Nazi occupation while in exile before himself becoming head of state in 1958. Slavery was abolished throughout France in 1848.

The local mayor Joel Wilmotte said the statue had already been cleaned, denouncing the vandalism as ‘scandalous’.

The head of the regional council for northern France, the prominent right-wing politician and former minister Xavier Bertrand, said the act was particularly outrageous coming just days before the 80th anniversary of de Gaulle’s 1940 call on the French to keep fighting.

‘At a time when we must remember that General de Gaulle kept the Resistance flame alive, the vandalising of this statue in Hautmont is scandalous,’ he said, demanding that the perpetrators be punished.

Local MP Sebastien Chenu added: ‘The French, and even more its political leaders, must always remember that it is largely thanks to him that France could be liberated when everything seemed lost.’

de Gaulle, first President of the French Fifth Republic, arrives with outgoing President Rene Coty at the ‘Arc de Triomphe’ in Paris to attend the transfer of power ceremony in 1959

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