France: Far-right Presidential candidate Eric Zemmour found guilty of racist hate speech

French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour on Monday was found guilty of racist hate speech and has been fined over $11,000 by a Paris court. According to AP, Zemmour was convicted of inciting racial hatred over the comments he made about unaccompanied migrant children in 2020. He had said that the child migrants were “thieves, killers, rapists” and they should be sent back.

Eric Zemmour, who is a former broadcaster and is known for his anti-Islam and anti-immigration views, did not show up in court on Monday to hear the verdict, having already skipped his trial in November. If he fails to pay the fine to the court, he could be jailed. But Zemmour’s lawyer, Olivier Pardo, said that he would appeal against the verdict.

Reacting to the verdict on social media, Zemmour complained that his freedom of speech was being restricted. He said there was an "urgent need to drive ideology out of the courts". “I’m one more time the victim of a political justice,” Zemmour told reporters separately, adding “I absolutely do not regret” the comments.

Last year, when Zemmour went on trial in November on charges of “public insult” and “incitement of hatred or violence”, he had claimed that the case was “nothing other than another attempt to intimidate” him. It is to mention that the far-right journalist and author has already been investigated 16 times in total over incendiary remarks on immigration and Islam.

Back in 2011, Zemmour was fined by a French court for claiming on TV that “most drug dealers are black and Arab”. In 2018, he was again ordered to pay a fine for comments about a “Muslim invasion” of France. 

Zemmour struggling to assemble endorsements 

Now, despite his anti-Islam and anti-immigration rhetoric, Zemmour is still considered among the major challengers to centrist President Emmanuel Macron. According to polls, the far-right presidential candidate is coming second in April’s election in France. Polls suggest that he could get around 11% of the first-round vote, as per BBC.

However, it is still not clear if Zemmour's name will be on the ballot paper. Like all candidates, he needs to muster 500 endorsements from elected figures around the nation by the middle of March in a bid to have his name on the ballot for the two rounds of voting in April.

But he has already admitted he risks being excluded unless more elected figures agree to back him under a system he has denounced as discriminating against political outsiders. 

(Image: AP)