The three officials, including the mayor of Hénin-Beaumont Steeve Briois, were suspected of having participated in the development and distribution of the “Petit guide pratique de l’élué municipal Front National” in 2014, which encouraged the application of national preference at the local level.
Three executives or former executives of the National Front (now RN), including the mayor of Hénin-Beaumont Steeve Briois, were acquitted on Tuesday by the Nanterre court of the charges of complicity in incitement to discrimination through the “FN elected official’s guide”which encouraged the application of the “national priority”In June, the prosecution requested a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros against Steeve Briois and the former national secretary of the National Front in charge of elected representatives Sophie Montel, who left the party in 2017.
A fine of 10,000 euros had been requested against another RN executive, Marie-Thérèse Costa-Fesenbeck, deputy mayor of Perpignan. The public prosecutor had considered that this “A short practical guide for elected municipal officials from the National Front”published before the municipal elections of March 2014 and in which the FN recommended to its candidates “the implementation of the many points of the National Front program”dont “national priority in access to social housing”included “a clear incentive to make this distinction” between French and foreigners.
Marie-Thérèse Costa-Fesenbeck was suspected of having published the document on the website of the Pyrénées-Orientales federation of the FN, which she headed, Sophie Montel of having written it and Steeve Briois of having written the editorial.
Participation not demonstrated
None of the three were present when the judgment was read. The court considered that the “personal and voluntary participation” of Steeve Briois and Sophie Montel in the publication of the guide on the departmental federation website has not been demonstrated. Marie-Thérèse Costa-Fesenbeck was acquitted due to insufficient evidence demonstrating her responsibility in the publication. “This decision shows us that our country is still a state governed by the rule of law.”commented for AFP Maître Mohamed Djema, lawyer of Steeve Briois.
“The court remained within the limits of the law and did not overflow into the political connotation that the associations present wanted to give” in the file, estimated Sophie Montel’s lawyer, Maître Randall Schwerdorffer. “It is disappointing because the three defendants were acquitted, but the important point is that the court did not address the merits of the case.”reacted Maître Slim Benachour, one of the lawyers of the association La Maison des Potes, which had filed a complaint in May 2014 and which was a civil party in the trial.
“Is it possible in the French Republic to support the need for national preference in electoral programmes? This question has not been resolved and we will continue to pursue it.”added Maître Jérôme Karsenti, another counsel for the association. The trial of a fourth official implicated in this case for incitement to hatred, MEP Jean-François Jalkh, was postponed until June 3, 2025 for medical reasons.
