The former President of the Republic, in power when the offense of apology was created in 2014, considers that the initiative of La France insoumise is likely to “hurt the victims of terrorism”.
For François Hollande, the initiative is “doubly reprehensible”. The former head of state expressed his opposition to La France Insoumise's proposed law on Sunday, November 24, aimed at repealing the offense of glorifying terrorism.
“The LFI initiative offends the victims of terrorism who, in their flesh, painfully experience any relaxation of the duty of vigilance and national cohesion”, estimated the socialist deputy of Corrèze on his X account.
In detail, the text proposed by LFI intends to eliminate the offense of advocating terrorism. The radical left group believes that the law of July 29, 1881 dealing with facts relating to the offenses of apologizing for a crime, apologizing for a war crime or apologizing for a crime against humanity is sufficient in this matter.
Insoumise France wants to “put” this offense “in the right place” in the law by removing it from the penal code, Mathilde Panot, the leader of the rebellious deputies, argued on Sunday on BFMTV.
Bernard Cazeneuve denounces the “abject cynicism” of LFI
The LFI proposal, much criticized by the right and the Macronists, also made the socialists jump, especially since they were in power when the offense of glorifying terrorism was included in the penal code. The first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, for example, considered it “imperative to protect public freedoms but also to protect the French from fanaticism and calls for violence and hatred”.
“It was during my five-year term that the law of November 13, 2014 created the offense of condoning terrorist acts,” underlined François Hollande, quoted in an article in Le Parisien. “It does not call into question freedom of expression since it explicitly refers to press rights and leaves the courts a discretion.”
For the former President of the Republic, the LFI bill is “doubly reprehensible. It creates confusion to better exonerate from their responsibilities personalities who, through their comments, use the Palestinian cause for provocative and hateful purposes.”
“All of this is abject cynicism,” his former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told the daily.
