Indicator history

Although there is no systematic record, there is evidence of hate speech in public life and media.

- On 8 September 2011, the Paris Criminal Court convicted John Galliano ( Dior fashion house) of public insults. He received a €6000 suspended fine and was ordered to pay to each of the victims of his abuse, as well as anti-racist associations who were civil plaintiffs, the symbolic sum of €1. He had twice uttered racist and antisemitic insults on the terrace of Parisian cafés;

-Eric Zemmour, a French political journalist, was convicted by the Paris Criminal Court on 18 February 2011, and handed a €1000 suspended fine. He was found guilty of 'incitement to discrimination' by stating during a television programme that employers have the right to refuse to hire black or North-African people. He was ordered to pay €1000 to each of the three associations (SOS Racism, MRAP, LICRA) who were civil plaintiff, and to pay €2000 in court costs. Moreover, the court made a second judgment after prosecution by the Union of Jewish Students of France and the association, J'accuse, attacking other televised comments. The court sentenced the defendant again for 'incitement to discrimination', a €1000 suspended fine, the payment of €1 to the plaintiff associations, and €750 in court costs;

-On 11 September 2011, the Minister for the Interior Claude Guéant said on-air on radio RTL: "I ​​can tell you that there is significant immigration from the Comoros to Marseille which is the cause of a lot of violence". The MRAP lodged a complaint to the CJR against these remarks for incitement to hatred, violence and discrimination. The ruling is pending.

The various debates took place during the presidential and legislative campaigns in 2012 on halal food, minarets, burqas, secularism, national identity, immigration, and prayers in the streets. The debates tended to raise Muslims as problematic for France.

For example, on 4 February 2012, the Minister for the Interior Claude Guéant said during the National University Union’s seminar that “the cultures are not equal. Those who defend humanity seem more advanced than those who deny it, those who advocate freedom, equality and fraternity, seem superior to those who accept the tyranny, social or ethnic hatred”. This phrase provoked a reaction of the deputy Serge Letchimy who told Claude Gueant: "You bring us day after day to these European ideologies that gave rise to concentration camps".

Source:

• Observateur, 05.02.2012, Claude Guéant estime que "toutes les civilisations ne se valent pas" (Claude Gueant believes that "all cultures are not equal"), http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/election-presidentielle-2012/20120205.OBS0609/claude-gueant-estime-que-toutes-les-civilisations-ne-se-valent-pas.html, Accessed on 03.01.2013

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