“Destitution”: a banner with a political message seen in the air on the Béziers coast

L’avion a survolé les plages du littoral, ici celle de Rochelongue, à Agde. M.L

A plane towing a banner "Destitution", where the letter "o" is replaced by the silhouette of Emmanuel Macron, flew over the Béziers coastline this Sunday, August 11. At the controls, an activist who has been spreading the message aboard his microlight for years, above beaches all over France.

The plane and its banner have earned photos … and questions, on social networks. "What is this plane that flew over Valras yesterday with a banner marked Destitution ?” asks an Internet user on the Valras-Plage Facebook group.

On the morning of Sunday August 11, a plane flew over the edge of the Béziers coastline, towing behind it a banner “Destitution”, on which the silhouette of Emmanuel Macron's face replaces the letter “o”.

“The banner is effective”

The work is by David van Hemelryck. On his Facebook page, followed by nearly 30,000 people, he presents himself as "pilot founder of the movement for the Destitution (…of macron)". The day before his Sunday flight, he posted this message, accompanied by photos taken from his plane. "Flights Destitution of August 10, beaches packed with people, escaping the police, taking off with a makeshift battery in addition to a dead alternator… for what result? ? Thousands of views for each kilometer traveled. Emotions, photos, smiles, people jumping for joy… the Resistance motivated to the max. THE BANNER IS EFFECTIVE!“

“It's someone who has been flying this banner on the coasts of France for at least four years”, explains Gérard Grillet, secretary general of the Béziers Cap d'Agde flying club. “He has a microlight and can therefore take off and land anywhere”, he assures us. As a reminder, advertising towed by plane has been prohibited by law since October 1, 2022.

Guest on TPMP and candidate for the 2017 legislative elections

The beach tours of France earned David van Hemelryck a guest appearance on the show Touche Pas à Mon Poste, on C8, in 2023. The newspaperLibération mentioned a year ago that the activist had become known since 2013. During the demonstrations against marriage for all, he flew over beaches and disrupted official ceremonies using a microlight followed by a banner “Hollande resigns”.

The journalist from L'Indépendant Stéphane Picard recalls that the pilot graduated from the École Polytechnique and was a candidate in the 2017 legislative elections under the label “Debout la France", Nicolas Dupont-Aignan's party, in the second constituency of Loiret, where he obtained less than 1% of the vote.

David van Hemelryck, a maths and dance teacher, relayed the disinformation in vogue in France, such as the rumor that Brigitte Macron was a man, the theory that the Notre-Dame fire was aimed at to “raze the symbol of Christian France and replace it with a Masonic thing”, or even the arguments of anti-vaccination activists during the Covid epidemic.