French MPs threatened with guillotine ahead of crucial vote

President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms have been followed by days of riots that police have struggled to control

French politicians are being threatened with the guillotine if they attempt to protect President Emmanuel Macron’s government from a pair of no-confidence votes in Parliament, according to a handful of MPs who claimed to have received death threats over the weekend. Police told French media that hundreds of such messages had been sent to lawmakers ahead of Monday’s vote. 

MP Agnes Evren, vice president of the Republican Party, posted an image of a death threat that she said was sent to her on Sunday, which vowed “your heads will fall,” calling for “the guillotine for your face” for supporting Macron.  

“These extremists refuse debate, have no respect for their political adversaries and are openly inspired by the Terror,” she tweeted, referring to the period of bloody executions that followed the French Revolution of 1789. Urging her followers not to “underestimate the danger,” she vowed to file a complaint for every such threat received.