French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour has been convicted by a judge. He will be fined 10,000 euros for inciting racial hatred. The publicist who are recently candidacy for president, is appealing the ruling.
Zemmour spoke on television in September 2020 about unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. He called them “thieves, rapists and murderers” in that broadcast. “They have no business here, we have to send them back,” he said on news channel CNews. That channel will also be fined 3000 euros.
Several organizations, including SOS Racism, went to court after Zemmour’s performance. “The verdict is a huge victory,” tweeted SOS Racism lawyer Patrick Klugman. According to him, the judge has put a stop to people who lump immigration and crime together.
‘stupid’
But Éric Zemmour himself claims to be innocent. In an earlier statement, he said he would make political statements, “and they should not be decided in court”. He now speaks of “an ideological and stupid condemnation”.
Zemmour is a candidate in the presidential elections to be held in France in April. He is considered a right-wing radical and is currently in fourth place in the polls. He has already been convicted twice for hate speech against migrants and Muslims.
He will be charged again next Thursday. Then he has to answer for statements about the Second World War. He said in 2019 that the collaborationist Vichy regime in France, which fully cooperated in the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, “saved French Jewish”.
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