This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A former French boxing champion who was filmed punching police officers during a gilets jaunes protest has received more than €100,000 in public donations online, angering the government.

The online fundraising platform Leetchi received €114,000 for Christophe Dettinger before the site closed the donation page after politicians expressed outrage on Tuesday. Leetchi said the funds were intended only for legal fees.

Dettinger handed himself in to police after clashing with officers on a bridge in Paris during an anti-government protest on Saturday. The incident was cited by the government as a sign of the violent turn demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron have taken.

The 37-year-old, a French light-heavyweight champion in 2007 and 2008 who retired from the sport in 2013, said in a video that he had “boiled over” after being teargassed with his wife on his eighth Saturday protest. “I reacted badly. Yes, I reacted badly,” he said, adding he had seen the “repression” of the police towards protesters.

He added: “I’m demonstrating for all the pensioners, for the future of my children, for single women, for everything we’re fighting for. I am a gilet jaune. I have the anger of the people in me … it’s always the little people who pay.”

But the funds raised online, seen as a mark of support for Dettinger, infuriated ministers.

Marlène Schiappa, junior minister for equality, said: “Contributing to a fundraising kitty to support someone who attacked an officer is tantamount to being an accomplice to these grave acts of violence.”

The labour minister, Muriel Pénicaud, called the fundraising campaign “incomprehensible”. “How can these people tell their children, the young, that violence is the answer?” she told CNews television.

Mounir Mahjoubi, minister for the digital economy, tweeted: “Apparently hitting a police officer makes money. When the attraction of money adds to hatred and violence, I feel only disgust.”

Police unions warned that the fundraising legitimised violence against police.

Sébastien Chenu, an MP for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, said that the donations were “a barometer of the hatred for the government” before adding that he condemned all violence.

The gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement – named after the hi-vis jackets worn by protesters – began in November as a revolt against the imposition of a fuel tax, but has morphed into a nationwide movement against the government and the pro-business, centrist Macron, who is accused of favouring the rich and maintaining an unfair tax system.