Marine Le Pen to Stand Trial Today for Speaking out About the Foreign Occupation
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Arriving at the Lyon court where she is charged with inciting racial hatred, Ms Le Pen said that she had “committed no crime” and that the court case had been politically timed to take place weeks before regional elections.
“Street prayers are illegal. It is a means of seizing a territory to impose a religious law. I am within my rights as a political leader to bring up such a fundamental subject – it’s even a duty to do so,” she told a scrum of reporters.
Marine Le Pen sits in court with Front National chief candidate in Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Christophe Boudot Ms Le Pen faces up to a year in prison and a fine of €45,000 (£33,000) if found guilty.
However in a coup for Ms Le Pen, the prosecutor called for an acquittal.
"Ms Le Pen, by denouncing these prayers in the public space, which did not refer to the entire Muslim community but to a minority, only exercised her freedom of expression," Bernard Reynaud, the prosecutor said.
Refusing to enter a debate into whether she was referring to the Nazi occupation, he said the act of "occupying" a public space "requires respecting certain rules".
The case, brought by two anti-racism and two Muslim groups, stems from comments Ms Le Pen made at a 2010 rally in Lyon while campaigning to take over the party.
“I'm sorry, but for those who really like to talk about the Second World War, if we're talking about occupation, we could talk about that (street prayers), because that is clearly an occupation of the territory,” she said during the meeting.
Such words “feed the ambient climate of Islamophobia that we’re currently going through”
Abdallah Zekri, secretary general of French Council of the Muslim Faith
"It is an occupation of sections of the territory, of neighbourhoods in which religious law applies, it is an occupation. There are no tanks, there are no soldiers, but it is an occupation anyhow, and it weighs on people."
Abdallah Zekri, secretary general of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, CFCM, said such words “feed the ambient climate of Islamophobia that we’re currently going through”.
Henri Braun, lawyer for anti-Islamophobia group, CCIF, said her message was clear. "In her words, she links praying in the street with the Occupation. The succession of words is very clear. We are told these are enemies occupying our territory...and this enemy is Muslims," he said.
However, Ms Le Pen denied this in court, saying: "I wanted to take an interest in the problems of the French and not to throw myself into references to the pass or history 70 years back."
Since succeeding her father in 2011, Ms Le Pen has significantly broadened the party’s appeal, expelling extremists and carefully toning down much of its rhetoric.
However, she remains a hugely divisive figure within France.
Marine Le Pen speaks with journalists as she leaves Lyon's courthouse
This court case comes after a vote to lift Ms Le Pen’s immunity as a member of the European Parliament, which allowed her to be charged last July.
Ms Pen sees her views as shared by "a majority of French people" and the case as one that "will bring to the fore the issue of daily violations against secularism in France".
Commentators warned that Ms Le Pen may make political capital out of the trial by depicting herself as a victim at a time when she is gaining popularity over Europe’s migrant crisis.
"I think that acting as a victim as she does is going to be more useful than bad (to her image)," historian Jean Garrigues told AP news agency. "We can see that this theme of an invasion that could be related to an occupation, it works. It does have a political efficiency."
The verdict will be handed down on December 15, just after the second round of elections in which Ms Le Pen polled current favourite to win leadership of the northern Pas-de-Calais region.
On Tuesday, Ms Le Pen claimed she was the subject of “judicial persecution”. “Doesn’t the timing astonish you? We are just a month away from regional elections when this affair was five years ago," she said.
But Thomas Guenole, another political analyst, said that while her trial would not be a problem to her core electorate it would serve as a reminder of the FN’s racist and xenophobic roots.
He said: "To them, her comments are a big problem ... because (these new voters) are resolutely antiracist and hostile to any kind of hate speech.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk
