Maxime Brunerie

Maxime Brunerie (born 21 May 1977) is a man who attempted to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on July 14, 2002 in Paris, during the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées.

Armed with a .22 rifle, Maxime Brunerie fired one shot at the passing presidential motorcade before being overpowered by bystanders and arrested by police. According to police both shots were very wide and the shooter's inexperience and lack of preparation made success for the assassination attempt unlikely.^[1][2]

Brunerie was found to have been linked to the far-right group Unité Radicale (which was dissolved in the aftermath of the shooting), and had been a candidate for the far-right party Mouvement National Républicain at a local election, as well as being associated with the French and European Nationalist Party.

Maxime Brunerie's trial, which began on 6 December 2004, revealed however that the shooting was more the act of a depressed and alienated young man than a political action: Brunerie's goal was to achieve fame by murdering a very famous person before being killed by police or committing suicide before television cameras. The court eventually found the defendant guilty of attempted murder, judging that his mental responsibility, though diminished, was not abolished. On 10 December 2004, Brunerie was sentenced to ten years of prison. He was freed after 7 years in jail, on 3 August 2009.^[3]

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