Marine Le Pen, France’s National Front’s presidential hope, is in court this week accused of inciting racial hatred with comments she made back in 2010, during a campaign speech in Lyon. Le Pen described Muslims worshipping in the streets because the mosques were full, and said, “I’m sorry, but some people are very fond of talking about the Second World War and about the occupation, so let’s talk about occupation, because that is what is happening here. There are no tanks, no soldiers, but it is still an occupation, and it weighs on people.”
A preliminary inquiry by the Lyon authorities was dropped in 2011, despite many complaints from liberal groups. Then the European parliament lifted Le Pen’s parliamentary immunity in July 2013, and another preliminary inquiry against her began. In September 2014, she received a court date. Now, mind you, Le Pen is no stranger to these lawsuits. Since 2011, her speeches had ended in 18 convictions, five of them for trivializing the Holocaust. But this is the first time Marine Le Pen has faced charges for hate speech.
The Muslim Council of France said that “by comparing French Muslims to Nazis” Le Pen attacked their honor and with history, and that she “fed the climate of Islamophobia which we live in at the moment.”
But is it Islamophobia when French motorists become irate when their streets are blocked by kneeling Muslims and they only get an hour for lunch?
Le Pen told Europe 1 it was “scandalous to be prosecuted for having a political opinion in the country of freedom of expression.”
On Tuesday, Le Pen accused the French government of using the judiciary to persecute her. Oddly, in court, the French state prosecutor recommended the judges acquit Le Pen of the charges, because her comments were protected by her freedom of expression.
The judges will give their verdict at a later date—if Le Pen is convicted of inciting racial hatred, she can spend a year in in prison and pay a fine of $51,000.