The former president of the National Front was tried for provoking racial hatred, seven years after a statement in response to artists engaged against the far-right party.
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The Paris Criminal Court on Friday, October 29, released the former president of the National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen. He was tried for provoking racial hatred. In 2014, in a video published on the National Front website, Jean-Marie Le Pen attacked the artists who had engaged against the party (Yannick Noah, Madonna …). While his interlocutor advanced the name of Patrick Bruel, of Jewish origin, the ex-president of the party had answered: “Listen, we’ll do a batch next time!”
These remarks had triggered a rain of condemnations and sowed discord in the FN. His daughter Marine Le Pen, then president of the FN, had described “a political mistake”. Seven years later, the court recognized that Jean-Marie Le Pen was targeting the Jewish community because “the word batch” referred to “the still symbolic image of the process of systematic extermination of the Jews of Europe”, explained the president of the tribunal. On the other hand, the court ruled that it was not a call to discrimination and violence, but to“a jubilation to make a good word in front of an acquired audience”.
At the end of the judgment, the former president of the FN, absent during the hearing, was delighted to AFP that “the facts prevailed over the malevolence in this case which was obvious” and “the court ruled according to the law”.