The SOS Racisme association announced on Thursday that it had filed a complaint after a French far-right candidate slipped up and claimed that party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen’s comments on the gas chambers as a “detail of history” were “not anti-Semitic.”
The complaint for “contesting crimes against humanity” will be filed with the Paris prosecutor’s office, a spokesperson for the association told AFP.
“SOS Racisme will file a complaint today against Laurent Gnaedig”, candidate of the National Rally (RN) in the 1time constituency of Haut-Rhin, in eastern France, where he came out on top in the first round of the legislative elections, the association said in a press release.
“It is not admissible that RN candidates […] can continue to flout the laws of the Republic by hiding behind the freedom of political debate,” believes SOS Racisme.
“As the second round of the legislative elections approaches, the true face of the RN is becoming clearer every day: that of a party that has not broken with any of its demons, its hatreds or its programmatic elements,” declared Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racisme, quoted in the press release.
Asked by AFP, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) of Bas-Rhin also announced its intention to file a complaint, according to its president, Fabielle Angel, who considered the RN candidate’s comments to be “inadmissible”.
“I of course condemn these remarks which reveal the true face of the extreme right. The facade of demonization of Marine Le Pen’s party is not misleading,” declared Brigitte Klinkert in a press release.
English teacher Laurent Gnaedig said during a debate on BFM Alsace on Wednesday evening that Jean-Marie Le Pen’s comments, made in 1987 and repeated subsequently, on the gas chambers as a “detail of history” were “not an anti-Semitic remark.”
However, they have resulted in Mr Le Pen, 96 years old, founder of the National Front, ancestor of the RN and historic figure of the French extreme right, being convicted in court and excluded from his party.
Mr. Gnaedig then presented his “sincere apologies.” The RN leadership “informed me of a summons before the movement’s national conflict commission. I will comply with its decision and regret my statement,” he added.