Macron relative beaten up in attack at family chocolate shop

EMMANUEL MACRON has said antipension reform protesters carried out an “unspeakable” attack on his great nephew in the family chocolate shop.

Eight people were under arrest yesterday in Amiens, northern France, on suspicion of punching and kicking Jean-baptiste Trogneux, a manager of the eponymous chocolate shop and great-nephew of France’s first lady.

Mr Trogneux has filed a legal complaint and had to take a week off work to recover. His father Jean-alexandre Trogneux, Brigitte Macron’s nephew, is also a manager at the Trogneux boutique, which, as the awning attests, has been in the family for five generations and is famed for its macaroons.

Mr Macron said Mr Trogneux was assaulted “because he is our greatnephew.”

“I consider these acts as absolutely unacceptable and as president of France they are unspeakable,” he said, adding that he expected justice to run its course in the matter.

Mrs Macron said: “I am in total solidarity with my family and in constant contact. I have repeatedly denounced this violence which can only lead to the worst,” she added.

On Monday shortly after 8pm, TF1 news broadcast a 20-minute interview with Mr Macron, in which the president stood by his decision to push through a pension reform raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

The reform led to three months of weekly protests in France and saw Mr Macron’s popularity nosedive as he faced angry protesters banging pots and pans wherever he went.

In the interview, Mr Macron – who is seeking to show the bill is behind him – said he had little choice but to enact the reform, which proved that “even when there are disputes, we do not change…we move on and there is determination”.

Minutes later, a group of about a dozen protesters marched towards the Trogneux chocolate shop.

“They were part of a group of [who] gather regularly in front of the town hall,” Jean-alexandre Trogneux told local newspaper Le Courrier Picard.

“It was 10pm when Jean-baptiste returned to the shop [he currently lives above it, according to the paper] and they fell on him. He received punches and kicks. He curled up into a ball to protect himself but sustained head, face, knee and finger injuries,” he said.

He said that the shop had been singled out by anti-macron protesters for months.