Populist French Senator Stéphane Ravier faces a criminal trial after publishing a tweet in January of last year in which he stated that “immigration kills the youth of France.”
Ravier, a former member of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) who joined political pundit and writer Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party last year, faces trial on March 9th in the criminal court of Marseilles on charges of incitement to discrimination, hatred, or violence.
The case revolves around a tweet published by Ravier on January 11th of 2022, in which he reacted to the murder of a teen in Paris by a 62-year-old man from the African nation of Senegal saying: “Theo, 18 years old, murdered yesterday by a Senegalese [migrant]… Immigration kills the youth of France,” La Provence reports.
A complaint over the tweet was made by the “anti-hate” group the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) and the League for Human Rights (LDH) against Ravier over allegations of spreading hatred toward migrants.
Hate Speech Trial Opens for French Presidential Hopeful Zemmour Over ‘Rapist’ Migrants Comments https://t.co/V4XkIXO72e
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 19, 2021
Alain Lothe, a civil party in the case, also alleged that by publishing his tweet “the elected official is not content to react to a news event but wants to highlight the nationality of its author and to involve all people from immigrant backgrounds.”
Last year, Ravier had been convicted for another comment made against a female socialist senator that was deemed to be sexist in nature and was handed a fine of 1,500 euros.
Like Ravier, Reconquest party leader Eric Zemmour has also been convicted by several courts after allegations of hate speech.
Prior to his presidential run last year, Zemmour had been convicted of hate speech offences several times. He is well-known for his fiery rhetoric on topics such as illegal immigration and radical Islam.
In November of 2021, Zemmour was on trial for hate speech after he claimed that underage illegal migrants were thieves, rapists, and murderers.
“They have nothing to do here, they are thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists, that’s all they are, they must be sent back and they must not even come,” he said.
He was later found guilty in January of last year and sentenced to a 10,000 euro fine.
French City Has to Launch Police Brigade to Deal Exclusively with Minor Migrant Crime https://t.co/nNjfXPErIh
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 5, 2023
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.