French Senator Escapes Sanction After Comparing Veiled Muslim Women to ’Halloween Witches’

His outburst had provoked the anger of his colleagues in the Senate as well as that of many French people on social networks. It was during a debate on the ban on wearing religious symbols for school chaperones that the senator Jean-Louis Masson had, among other inappropriate words, compared veiled women to "Halloween witches" before ordering the "communitarians" to "go back where they came from".

This was enough for PS vice-president David Assouline to file a complaint with the Senate for inappropriate remarks from his colleague: "The parliamentary precinct is a space of freedom of expression but the expression of racism is a crime and not an opinion that would have its place in a parliamentary debate," he had specified to Le Parisien.

Remarks that will ultimately not be sanctioned. The Senate office has criticized Senator Jean-Louis Masson and condemned his insulting, racist remarks. In a statement quoted by Public Sénat, the 26-senator body "found that it did not have the competence to sanction a senator in any way whatsoever for inappropriate remarks made during a public session". But the Senate reaffirms its absolute commitment to the freedom of expression of senators, a freedom protected by Article 26 of the Constitution, which effectively limits any form of sanction.

However, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, will receive Jean-Luc Masson to discuss the facts, as the parliamentarian is not a first-time offender. In 2015, he had already stated from the Senate rostrum that "the immigration of today are the terrorists of tomorrow". Remarks that had then led to a series of reminders of the rules.