Éric Zemmour, repeat offender of racist and hateful remarks
The Court of Cassation overturned the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal to acquit Éric Zemmour for contesting a crime against humanity, Tuesday, September 5. The former far-right presidential candidate had affirmed in October 2019 on the CNews channel that Marshal Pétain had ” Safe ” Jews during World War II.
The polemicist already has numerous convictions to his credit, mainly for remarks inciting racial discrimination or religious hatred.
► In 2011, convicted of provoking racial discrimination
In March 2010, Éric Zemmour stated on France Ô that employers “have the right to refuse Arabs and blacks”. The same day, Canal+ broadcast other comments from the man who was designated at the time as a “polemicist”, in which he considered that “Most of the traffickers are black and Arab.”
The Licra is taking Éric Zemmour to court. In February 2011, he was fined a total of €9,000. A second judgment, which only concerns the comments broadcast on Canal+, results in a new conviction.
► In 2018, convicted of provoking religious hatred towards Muslims
Éric Zemmour did it again in 2016 on France 5 by asserting that “all Muslims” see jihadists as “good muslims”. “For thirty years we have been experiencing an invasion, a colonization, which has led to a conflagration,” he insisted.
These comments earned him a fine of €5,000, the courts considering that these “targeted Muslims as a whole”. The fine was then reduced to €3,000 on appeal but the conviction was upheld.
His appeal to the Court of Cassation was rejected in September 2019 by the Court of Cassation. Seized by Éric Zemmour, who evokes freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights dismissed him at the end of 2022 and his conviction was definitively validated.
► In 2020-2022, convicted of provoking racial hatred and public insults of a racist nature
In 2020, Éric Zemmour declared on CNews that unaccompanied foreign minors are “thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists, that’s all they are.” Several departments (Loire-Atlantique, Gers, Haute-Garonne and Landes) filed a complaint, as did Licra and SOS Racisme.
The Paris criminal court sentences Éric Zemmour to a fine of €10,000 for “complicity in racial insult and incitement to hatred”. The columnist decides to appeal the conviction.
The CSA imposes a fine of €200,000 on the channel, the first financial penalty imposed by the regulatory authority. The Council of State confirms this fine in 2022.
► In 2022, convicted of copyright infringement and infringement of moral rights
In 2022, Éric Zemmour was convicted for the first time in a case which was not linked to statements deemed racist. He must pay € 165,000 to several plaintiffs, including Luc Besson and the heirs of Jacques Prévert, who had attacked him for the unauthorized use of film extracts in the clip announcing his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election.
► In 2023, racist insult
Éric Zemmour was once again sentenced in January 2023 for racist and outrageous remarks made about Hapsatou Sy, a French television host. The columnist declared in 2018 that his first name was a “insult to France”. Éric Zemmour announced that he would appeal this decision.
1/2 It is a source of great pride to have stood firm during all these years and to have been able to have Éric Zemmour condemned for insulting a racist nature. My first name is my identity, my origins are my strengths, and behind me, I hope that many other French people will feel liberated
— Hapsatou SY (@HapsatouSy) January 12, 2023
Barely a month later, the Court of Cassation overturned the acquittal of Éric Zemmour for an anti-immigration diatribe held during a “right-wing convention” organized in September 2019. He had notably castigated immigrants “ colonizers ” and an ” Islamization of the street “. The former presidential candidate will therefore also be retried for this case.
