Convicted for Tweeting About the “Migratory Invasion”

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is an MP and a former French presidential candidate. During last year’s campaign he tweeted about the “migratory invasion” and “population replacement”. For that “crime” he has been tried, convicted, and assessed for a €5,000 fine.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is the accompanying article about the case, also translated by Ava Lon:

“Migratory Invasion”: Suspended sentence of €5,000 fine required against Dupont-Aignan

April 4, 2018

[Photo caption: 5,000 euros fine against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for provocation to hatred or discrimination. — Agence France-Presse. The prosecutor’s office in Paris has requested a fine of €5,000 suspended, against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for having evoked a “migratory invasion” in a tweet in 2017.]

The prosecutor’s office in Paris on Wednesday ordered a fine of €5,000 against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the president of Debout La France, who was tried for calling for hatred or discrimination, for evoking a “migratory invasion”.

“The Population Replacement is now!”

On January 17, 2017, the MP for the Essonne, then a candidate for the presidential election, tweeted the following words: “In 2016 the socialists compensated for the decline in birth rate by the migratory invasion. “The [Great] Population Replacement is [happening] now!”

The prosecution began the process after a report by the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra).

“Uninhibited racist speech”

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was not present to face the 17th chamber of the Criminal Court. His lawyers have asserted his parliamentary immunity, which, according to the prosecution and Licra, cannot enable him to escape prosecution in this particular case.

“We have a leading politician, a declared candidate for the presidential election, who quietly repeats, publicly, of his own accord, a conspiracy and racist theory born in the bowels of the French far right at the beginning of the previous decade,” the thesis of the “great replacement” of Renaud Camus, denounced the prosecutor.

“Not condemning him would mean to permit opening wide the floodgates of the uninhibited racist speech,” “pointing out all those who don’t belong to the national community”, migrants and immigrants, continued the representative of the prosecution.

He requested a €5,000 suspended fine, against the MP, “a first and, I hope, last warning”.

“For once, when a politician tells the truth”

For their part, lawyers for Nicolas Dupont-Aignan pleaded for his release, arguing the “truth” of his remarks and insisting that the politician was targeting the Socialist Party rather than immigration.

This is a somewhat “nasty” parody of the slogan of former President François Hollande’s “Change is now,” said Philippe Prigent, and “the purpose of this tweet is to call people not to vote for the Socialist candidate, that’s all.” “For once” when a politician “is telling the truth, we might not want to punish him,” he pleaded.

The civil party, Licra, asked for €5,000 euros in damages. The case will be decided on June 6th.

Video transcript:

00:00   There’s not [just] one solution: first the state of emergency.
00:04   When the state of emergency was removed, I was criticized a lot for refusing the new law,
00:08   and asking for the upholding of the state of emergency. And I’m going to give you one number:
00:12   thousands of administrative searches under the state of emergency,
00:16   six visits, six home visits, since the new law.
00:20   Only the state of emergency was giving the police forces the means of acting more quickly.
00:24   Second point. —But the state of emergency didn’t prevent the attacks, in particular the attack…
00:28   — but of course… —the attack of July 14th in Nice! There was the state of emergency! — Of course!
00:33   It’s every means… if we reject every measure by saying ‘It didn’t prevent an attack’, we won’t take
00:38   any measures! It’s a panoply of decisions that have to be made. Second means:
00:41   yes, deportation, first of all, of the foreign delinquents,
00:45   the re-establishment of double sentencing, like in most countries in the world,
00:49   and a systematic deportation of foreign S-files people — The S-file
00:53   isn’t a sentence. The S-file is a means of intelligence. —For the time being,
00:57   those are the radicalized ones, who consulted ISIS. Now we have to separate ourselves
01:01   from them. They have to go back to their countries. Therefore… — An S-file.
01:06   He is consulting an Islamist site and we deport him? — Yes. Deport. It’s the only solution.
01:10   Third measure:… —Are you sure that under our rule of law this is possible? —Well, we’ll do it!
01:14   We’ll do it under the rule of law. We have to modify the law. We have to win this war!
 

9 thoughts on “Convicted for Tweeting About the “Migratory Invasion”

  1. Boys In The Barroom? Seriously?

    I have that – on Robert Hunter – Live 85. On vinyl. He lives on.

    Side 1
    Promontory Rider
    Jack Straw
    Red Car
    Sweet Little Wheels

    Side 2
    Amagamalin St.
    rose/Rose (It Must Have Been The Roses)
    Easy Wind
    Franklin’s Tower
    Boys In The Barroom

    Does God look down on the Boys in the Barroom,
    Mainly forsaken but surely not judged?
    Jacks, King and Aces, their faces in wine,
    Do Lord deliver our kind,
    From singing for whiskey three strings on the fiddle,
    Four on the guitar and a song that I love.
    Many’s the night we spent picking and singing,
    In hope it be pleasing both here and above.
    Jack string fiddle to my saw tooth bow,
    Who loves loneliness loves it alone.
    I love the dim lights like some love the dew,
    Only thing I wonder sometimes”

    Does God look down on the Boys in the Barroom,
    Mainly forsaken but surely not judged?
    Jacks, Kings and Aces, their faces in wine,
    Do Lord deliver our kind.

    Popeye: “Well blow me down”
    I’m so broke I can’t afford to pay attention, but you got me with that. And honestly, if I can afford booze, I can afford to be part of your crowd to keep you going.

    • Thanks. I did leave those lyrics in my post. One of the songs whose lyrics run through my head…partly because it’s mostly sung acapella and clearly.

      But also because many of the branches of my family tree are bare… until your gaze goes to the foot of the tree, where lie many of my male relatives, having passed out and fallen off their perch. [Women-would-bes are largely sugar-holics instead so they more often manage to hold onto their branch]

    • From the same album (Tales of the Great Rum Runners):

      Maybe She’s a Bluebird

      All of my fancies
      All of my dreams come true
      Just to be here with you
      For the last dream

      All of my life
      Starts to make sense now
      I think I see what it means

      When I was a beggar
      When I was a thief
      When I was caught up
      Was you that brought relief

      Sometimes you amaze me
      Sometimes make me crazy
      Maybe you’re a bluebird
      That will never fly away

      Not fly away, no
      Not fly away
      Maybe you’re a bluebird
      Who will never fly away

  2. His comments did not mention race, religion or ethnicity, and in fact were open to interpretation. Unbelievable he has been fined. I hope he appeals the verdict. Be a bad day for freedom of speech in France if it stands.

  3. Your headline for this article is totally inaccurate. I hope that this is simply a mistake due to misunderstanding of the French legal process. Dupont Aignan has not been convicted at all. He has been charged and the parquet – the prosecution – has asked for the fine. As it says in the original article in French and in the translation the case will be judged on the 6th June. There is every possibility that he will be acquitted.

Comments are closed.