FRANCE’S FAR-RIGHT Jean-Marie Le Pen is on trial for hate speech over comments made alluding to the Holocaust in 2014.

The 93-year-old founder of France’s main far-right party went on trial once again today over allegations of inciting racial hatred, this time with comments targeting a Jewish pop singer.

He already has a string of hate speech convictions that eventually became too much for his daughter Marine Le Pen, who expelled him from the National Front’s leadership in 2015 in a bid to achieve mainstream respectability.

The latest trial stems from a 2014 video on the party’s website in which Le Pen railed against artists who denounced his extremist stances, including Madonna and French tennis star-turned-singer Yannick Noah.

Asked about the French singer and actor Patrick Bruel, Le Pen referred to his Jewish origins with a remark evoking the Holocaust — “I’m not surprised. Listen, next time we’ll do a whole oven batch!”

The taunt sparked a torrent of indignation including from leaders of his own party, with Marine Le Pen criticising what she called a “political error”.

Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed the comments carried no antisemitic connotations “except for my political enemies or imbeciles”.

His defence team argued in court on Wednesday he had been speaking figuratively, but prosecutors said there was nothing innocent about his words.

Judges said they would deliver a verdict on 29 October following the one-day hearing where Le Pen — who did not appear in person — faced charges of inciting antisemitic hatred.

The trial was delayed for years while Le Pen claimed immunity from prosecution as an MEP, a seat he won in 1984 and held until 2019.

But fellow lawmakers stripped his legal protections over the case in 2016.

Le Pen, his daughter and others from the party — now rebranded the National Rally — are also facing financial misconduct charges over subsidies earmarked for paying their EU parliamentary aides.

Investigators say they used €6.8 million in public funds to finance party work in France.

Jean-Marie Le Pen remains a regular media presence and a lodestar for many on the far-right who brush off his multiple hate speech convictions, not least his repeated insistence that the Nazi gas chambers were just a “detail” of history of World War II.

But a new conviction could complicate the bid by Marine Le Pen to take on Emmanuel Macron again for the presidency next year, especially after the National Rally failed to take control of any French region in elections last June.

© AFP 2021