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» “Detail of the History”
On September 13, 1987 during the RTL – Le Monde Grand Jury, Jean-Marie Le Pen declared: “I am not saying that the gas chambers did not exist. I haven’t been able to see any myself. I have not specifically studied the question. But I think it’s a detail in the history of the Second World War.” In the process, he added: “If it’s a point of detail, I mean, of the war, yes… Well, listen. Are you telling me that this is a revealed truth that everyone must believe? Is it a moral obligation? I say that there are historians who debate these questions…”. A statement that stunned.
“I accuse the immigration lobby, a veritable anti-Le Pen union, of having set up this witchcraft trial against me. »
Two days later, at the National Assembly, Jean-Marie Le Pen maintained his remarks, accusing the “immigration lobby, a real anti-Le Pen union, of having mounted this witchcraft trial against me”. “My enemies, and with what fury, accused me of having said that the gas chambers were a point of detail in the history of the Second World War… and that I would have used this word in its pejorative sense … This is a usual process of intellectual terrorism… The concentration camps where Jews, gypsies, Christians and patriots died by the millions… The methods used to put them to death constituted a detail, a chapter, in the Second World War , such as all the works of history testify… who will have the loyalty and the courage to admit to having been wrong… I accuse the immigration lobby, a true anti-Le Pen union of having mounted against me, this witchcraft trial,” he declared,
For having made these remarks, Jean-Marie Le Pen was first sentenced twice in civil court, in 1991 then in 1999, having to pay damages to associations. Criminally, the co-founder of the 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 in cassation.
» 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 pun, “Durafour crematory”, targeting the Minister of the Civil Service at the time, Michel Durafour.
“Look, we’ll make a batch next time. »
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.” As early as 1958, when he was a young MP, he told the former head of government Pierre Mendès France: “you are aware that you crystallize in your character a certain number of patriotic and almost physical repulsions”.
» 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.
“The day we have no longer 5 million but 25 million Muslims in France, they will be in charge. »
Jean-Marie Le Pen was then sentenced on appeal to a fine of 10,000 euros for inciting racial hatred in 2005. In an interview with the newspaper Le Monde on April 19, 2003, he said: “The day we have in France, no longer 5 million but 25 million Muslims, they are the ones who will be in charge. And the French will level 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 as “stinging” and “odorous”, in 2013. Conviction confirmed in 2018 in cassation.
» Violence against a candidate
In 1998, Jean-Marie 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 Yvelines, 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 the affair of the parliamentary assistants of 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 “disjoined” 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”.