A French deputy mayor who referred to Brigitte Macron as France’s “First Ladyboy” in an online post is on trial in Paris and is facing two years in prison as the Macron regime cracks down on online dissent.
Jean-Luc M, 65, a retired business owner who is now a deputy mayor in Saône-et-Loire, was interrogated about social media posts he shared or wrote, including one referring to Brigitte Macron as “our first ladyboy”. He denied online harassment, saying: “I never intended to cause harm.”
Jean-Luc is on trial with nine other French citizens, all aged between 41 and 59, who have ben accused of “online harassment” and “hate crimes” by Brigitte Macron. However, the defendants claim they are being victimized by the regime as part of a wider effort to silence free speech and dissent as Macron loses his grip on power.
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🇫🇷 🧑⚖️ The ten accused on trial for the online harassment of #France's first lady Brigitte #Macron have brought a range of arguments in their defence on Tuesday, with some being centred on protecting their freedom of expression.
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) October 28, 2025
Our senior reporter @cnorristrent has more ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/zLbA9LCpim
“It’s a joke, it’s funny,” said Jérôme Claverie, a 53-year-old man from southern France who works in finance of his social media posts about Brigitte Macron. “Do you need a certificate or diploma to make jokes in France?”
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He added: “There is something weird in this story, I’m allowed to have questions.”
Another defendant, Jérôme Amiot, a 49-year-old tech worker, said he did not understand why he was in court. “Today you can send people to court for a few tweets,” he said. “It’s scary.”
He said the Macrons could have ended the story by presenting evidence to refute the claims. However, they have been unable to do so.
Last month, Tom Clare, the lawyer representing the Macrons in the US, told the BBC that his clients would be willing to present “scientific evidence” that Brigitte was a natural born woman in their case against Candace Owens in Delaware.
Another defendant in the French case, Jean-Christophe Denoual, a 54-year-old physical education teacher, said that he was “stunned to read that Ms. Macron may have suffered from my tweets,” but that the trial felt “disproportionate.”
“Of course I apologize if I caused her any harm, I regret it,” he said.
In his closing arguments, the prosecutor singled out three defendants who had large social media followings, saying that they should be subjected to harsher punishment: Ms. Jegousse, 51; a former publicist turned novelist named Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, who posted on social media under a pseudonym and had tens of thousands of followers before the account was disabled; and Bertrand Scholler, 56, the owner of an art gallery in Paris. They all denied wrongdoing.
Mr. Poirson-Atlan and Mr. Scholler warned that the case could set a dangerous precedent. “We live in a country where up until recently we had a right to demonstrate freely,” said Mr. Scholler. “How far is this going to go?”
What happens next?
The court in Paris will have to determine if messages posted online by the accused caused a deterioration of Brigitte Macron’s “living conditions, leading to an impairment of her physical or mental health.”
The court is expected to issue a verdict on January 5. If the accused are found guilty, they could be jailed for up to two years and fined 30,000 euros, or about $35,000.
