Kulturkampfpanzer

be still, my beating heat

Maggy Delvaux-Mufu, a mother of three in her forties, alerted several national newspapers late on Tuesday

morning last week that she would be burning herself alive on place des Martyrs at 12.45 am, before

setting out accompanied by her husband to walk through the centre of town to her macabre rendezvous. The

police were alerted and officers were deployed to the Rousegärtchen.

But the woman changed her plan when she came across a group of journalists gathered to cover an event

organised by the ‘Mouvement écologique’ on Place d’Armes, opposite the Cercle municipal. She soaked

herself in petrol before confronting the members of the press, announcing that she was about to sacrifice

her life to protest against racism. Moments later, she struck a match, turning herself into a human torch

in front of hundreds of people.