Far-Right Leader Zemmour Acquitted in Controversial Immigration Remarks Case

The Paris Criminal Court acquitted on Wednesday the president of the far-right party Reconquête! who had declared on January 26, 2022, during a live television program broadcast on the Public Sénat channel, in the midst of the presidential election campaign, that "if] we have such an explosive delinquency, it is because of immigration." When asked if there are "only immigrants who are delinquents," [Éric Zemmour had replied: "Yes. In any case, immigrants or children of immigrants."

The judges considered that these remarks by the former presidential candidate, "as excessive or provocative as they may seem, do not meet the characteristics of the offense of incitement to hatred." They do not apply to all immigrants, "but only to its delinquent fraction," the court observes. Éric Zemmour is being prosecuted for other cases of incitement to hatred or denial of crimes against humanity.