Paris (AFP)
The Court of Cassation rejected on Tuesday the appeal of associations against racism after the release of the mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard, close to the National Front, prosecuted for having declared that there were too many Muslim children in schools of his city.
At first instance, the Paris Criminal Court had, in April 2017, sentenced Mr. Ménard to 2,000 euros fine for "provocation to hatred and discrimination".
The Paris Court of Appeal reversed this judgment a year later arguing that the case law now required that the incriminated words contain "an exhortation possibly implicit" to hatred or discrimination so that the crime of "provocation" is constituted , which was not according to them in the case of Mr. Ménard.
The elected official was sued for posting the following message on Twitter on September 1, 2016: "#back ofclasses: the most striking proof of the #GrandReplacement in progress, just look at old class photos".
He was also sued for reporting on LCI on September 5: "In a city center class in my home, 91% of Muslim children, obviously that's a problem."
In its judgment, the Court of Cassation confirmed that "neither of the two incriminated passages" contained "an appeal or an exhortation, even if implicitly formulated, to discrimination, hatred or violence towards a person or group of determined persons ".
The seven antiracist associations that had formed civil parties, including the Licra, the Mrap, the League of Human Rights, SOS Racism and the House of Friends, are therefore definitely dismissed.
Elected in 2014 at the head of Béziers, a 70,000-strong city of Hérault, with the support of the National Front and in a triangular fashion, the former president of Reporters Without Borders is familiar with controversies, particularly over immigration, Algerian war or security.
? 2019 AFP