The Criminal Court of Paris has relaxed the former president of the National Front, 93 years, judged for provocation to racial hatred for remarks in 2014.
Le Monde
The Criminal Court of Paris has relaxed, Friday, October 29, the former president of the National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen, 93, judged for provocation to racial hatred for remarks made in 2014.
At the time, he said, in a video broadcast on the website of the National Front speaking artists committed against the far right, that Guy Bedos and Madonna, whom he calls “Bedoche” and “Maldonna” were his elected officials of the week, and “should be married”. “And Patrick Bruel?” Haded Marie of Herbais de Thun, who gave him the reply. “It does not surprise me, listen, we will make a batch next time.”
The Tribunal acknowledged that the words of Mr. Le Pen targeted the Jewish community, because “the word brought” referred to “the image when even symbolic of the process of systematic extermination of the Jews of Europe” . But, added his chair, it was not a call for discrimination and violence but of “a jubilation to make a good word from an acquired audience”. His co-owner, Jean-François Jalkh, ex-Director of publication of the FN website, was also relaxed.
m. Le Pen was not present at the statement of judgment, but welcomed a statement: “The facts took away the malevolence. I am pleased that in this case which was obvious the Tribunal considered according to the Law. “
A” good word “to the great political consequences
The procedure in question was particularly long: the parquet had first given up pursuing it, human rights associations had to grab an investigating judge, and Jean-Marie Le Pen, then Member of Parliament, benefited from parliamentary immunity that it had to be exit before its indicting in 2017.
These remarks have had serious political consequences for Mr. Le Pen and the National Front. His daughter, Marine Le Pen, president of the time, had spoken of a “political fault” and Louis Aliot, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Party, had described the choice of this term “stupid politically and appalling”. Jean-Marie Le Pen had been excluded from the party in the summer of 2015, before being deprived of his honor presidency at the March 2018 Congress.
If it has been relaxed this time, Mr. Le Pen has been condemned several times by justice:
- In 1993, he had been a fine for his word game, “Durafour Crematoire”, aimed at the Minister of the Public Service of the time, Michel Duravers.
- He had also been sentenced for “challenge of crime against humanity”, when he had repeatedly qualified the gas chambers of “detail of the history of the Second World War”.