A historic figure of the French far right, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died on Tuesday, made numerous sulphurous statements and verbal provocations throughout his career, and was convicted several times, notably for contesting crimes against humanity.
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“Detail of the History”
For having declared on September 13, 1987, and reiterated several times, that the existence of the gas chambers was “a point of detail in the history of the Second World War”, Jean-Marie Le Pen was initially condemned twice in civil proceedings, in 1991 then in 1999, having to pay damages to associations.
Criminally, the co-founder of the National Front (FN) was then sentenced in 2017 on appeal to a fine of 30,000 euros for contesting a crime against humanity, for having repeated these remarks in 2015. Conviction confirmed in 2018 by the Court of Cassation, the highest court in the French judicial order.
L’Occupation
He was also sentenced for contesting crimes against humanity, this time to a three-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros, in 2012 on appeal. He affirmed in 2005, in the far-right weekly Rivarol, that the German Occupation had not been “particularly inhumane” in France.
In 1993, Jean-Marie Le Pen had already been convicted of public insult in appeal for a fine for his 1988 play on words, “Durafour crematory”, aimed at the Minister of the Civil Service at the time, Michel Durafour.
On the other hand, he was acquitted on appeal in 2022 for having attacked several personalities committed against the far right in a video on his blog in 2014, saying about the singer Patrick Bruel, of Jewish faith: “Listen, we will make a batch next time.
Races, Muslims and Roma
In 1998, Jean-Marie Le Pen and his number two in the FN at the time, Bruno Mégret, were ordered to pay damages to the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF), for comments on “the “racial inequality” held in 1996 and 1997.
Mr. Le Pen was then fined 10,000 euros on appeal for inciting racial hatred in 2005. In an interview with the newspaper Le Monde on April 19, 2003, he said: “The day we have France, no longer 5 million but 25 million Muslims, they are the ones who will be in charge. And the French will tear down the walls, get off the sidewalks and lower their eyes.”
In 2014, he was fined 5,000 euros on appeal for saying in 2012 that the Roma, “like birds, (fly) naturally”.
Then he was sentenced on appeal in 2017 to a fine of 5,000 euros for provoking hatred and discrimination, for having described the presence of Roma in Nice, a city in the south-east of France, four years earlier as ”stinging” and ”odorous”. Conviction confirmed in 2018 in cassation.
Violence against a candidate
In 1998, Mr. Le Pen was sentenced on appeal to one year of ineligibility and three months in prison for violence against a socialist candidate in Mantes-la-Jolie, in the Paris region, during the legislative election campaign in 1997. Decision confirmed in cassation one year later.
Homosexuals
He was fined 2,400 euros on appeal in 2019, for two public insults targeting homosexuals, including police officer Xavier Jugelé, killed in 2017 in an attack on the Champs-Élysées.
Assistants to MEPs: not fit to be judged
The co-founder of the FN was also indicted in 2019 for embezzlement of public funds in a case involving parliamentary assistants to MEPs from the National Front (FN, which has since become the National Rally).
During the trial which took place this fall in Paris, his case was “disjointed” after a medical expertise noted “a profound deterioration” in his physical and psychological state, estimating that he was not able or “to be present”, nor to “prepare one’s defense”.
