Greenpeace Relocates Macron’s Wax Statue in Protest, Symbolic Strike Against France’s Russian Ties and Climate Contradictions

On June 2, 2025, Greenpeace activists took the step of removing a wax replica of French President Emmanuel Macron from where it stood inside the Grevin Museum in Paris. Upon removal, they went ahead and placed the model outside the Russian embassy building as part of a broader protest campaign.

The protest was held in protest of France’s sustained and extensive economic relations with Russia, as well as what the activists felt was a failure of the French government to act on the issue of climate action. The main purpose of the protest was to highlight the fact that France continues to import Russian gas and fertilizers. Greenpeace sees this as being essentially contradictory to the public display of solidarity that President Macron has undertaken with Ukraine in the current conflict.

Greenpeace’s move thus is one of symbolic protest against what it sees as France’s self-contradictory position—on the one hand, posturing solidarity with Ukraine in the latter’s long-standing conflict, and on the other, still maintaining significant imports of key resources like Russian gas, fertilizers, and uranium. Greenpeace France director Jean-François Julliard forcefully emphasized the jarring lack of consonance between France’s professed solidarity with Ukraine, which is incompatible with the country’s ongoing and significant imports from Russia. The protest emphasizes the striking lack of consonance between political rhetoric and economic action, especially in the larger context of global conflicts and urgent environmental issues that are increasingly coming to dominate global discourse.

President Macron’s wax statue, made in 2018 without his consent or even consultation, had unfortunately been the object of public and media ridicule and scorn. Museum director Yves Delhommeau openly admitted that it was just impossible for the statue to capture Macron’s likeness, citing that the sculptors had no other choice but to rely only on photographs in making the figure. The statue’s highly adverse look had already generated much negative publicity, making it a symbolic, heart-wrenching reminder of Greenpeace’s continuous protest campaign.

The protesters were successful in executing the removal of the statue peacefully without incident or confrontation, entering the museum as normal patrons do and leaving shortly thereafter with the statue in tow. Greenpeace has now stated they intend to replace the statue in its previous position, though a date for doing so has not been issued. The Grevin Museum, perhaps best noted for its extensive array of wax figures of some of the most recognizable figures from around the world, has yet to comment on this surprising event.

Wider Perspective This particular incident is not isolated but rather an expression that is part of a much broader and disparate pattern of activist interventions. These interventions target symbolic representations in their numerous various forms, and the overall aim of these interventions is to bring heightened attention to critical political and environmental emergencies which we all face. Further, the selection of Macron’s wax figure as a focal point in this particular protest works to bring to the fore the complicated and multifaceted nexus of politics, art, and activism. This situation offers a set of important and provocative questions about the role and responsibility of cultural institutions, as well as the various representations which they choose to host in their spaces.

Lastly, The recent removal of President Macron’s wax figure by Greenpeace activists is a strong and forceful message on the perceived paradoxes that lie not only within France’s foreign policy but also within its environmental sustainability commitments. The action also refers to the kinds of issues that cultural institutions face in the curating and management of political leaders’ representation, especially during the periods when such representation is controversial or incites public discussion. Keep Reading Questeuro.com for more news.

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