A French court has acquitted far-right leader Marine Le Pen and a party colleague of breaking hate speech laws by posting three images of Islamic State atrocities on Twitter.
The court in Nanterre in Paris found that while the pictures were violent they fell under political protest and the right to freedom of speech.
Ms Le Pen had originally condemned the trial as politically motivated.
She is seen as President Emmanuel Macron’s main rival for the presidency.
The Right-wing leader is on course to gain young voters to next year’s election
If it was left to youngish French people, Marine Le Pen would probably be elected President of the Republic next May. There has been a radical shift in her favour among French 25-34 year olds, according to a recent Elabe poll (figures confirmed in other surveys by Ipsos and Ifop).
https://twitter.com/ElectsWorld/status/1382617400772804608?s=20
The figures are disturbing if you fear a French lurch to the far-Right next year. They need to be read with caution. Younger and older age groups are more favourable to President Emmanuel Macron.
French far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen has denied breaking hate speech laws by tweeting ‘monstrous’ pictures of ISIS atrocities in a trial she slammed as a politically motivated attempt to silence her.
The leader of the National Rally party appeared in a Paris court today after she was accused of spreading hate by publicising the images of James Foley, an American journalist who was murdered by the terrorist group in 2014.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen today proposed a ban on Muslim headscarves in all public places, seeking to build on a record recent poll putting her almost neck-and-neck with President Emmanuel Macron.
The hijab policy, which would be contested in court and would almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional, saw the 53-year-old return to a familiar campaign theme 15 months from the country’s 2022 presidential election.
‘I consider that the headscarf is an Islamist item of clothing,’ Le Pen told reporters at a press conference where she proposed a new law to ban ‘Islamist ideologies’ which she called ‘totalitarian and murderous.’
