Meaux Employee Faces Sanctions for Violent Anti-Muslim Comment on Social Media

The controversy had escalated so much that it led Jean-François Copé, the mayor of Meaux, to react on Monday afternoon.

"It is not my habit to comment on images or statements circulated on social networks, which give rise to unnecessary and shocking controversies and tensions," says Jean-François Copé.

"The fact that these intolerable remarks were made by an administrative employee of the city of Meaux leads me to react and I firmly condemn them!"

The photo in question resurfaced as the debate rages in France, after an elected member of the Rassemblement national (RN) asked, on October 11, during a session of the Bourgogne Franche-Comté Regional Council, that a mother present in the audience remove her veil.

According to Le Parisien, the controversial photo in Meaux has not been authenticated. It would have been taken on the Place de la République in Paris. On Sunday morning, a municipal councilor from Clichy-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine) reposted it on his Facebook account, describing this woman as an "Islamist".

This is the same photo that a municipal agent in Meaux commented on, before posting an apology message later in the day on the same social network.

The Meaux police station opened an investigation for incitement to racial hatred, after several reports of "condemnable remarks circulated on social networks".