Support NeoGAF

[ComputerMKII]

Source: http://www.thelocal.fr/20131021/far-right-sues-black-minister-amid-monkey-scandal

French far right to sue black justice minister

France's far-right National Front is suing the country's justice minister for defamation, after she condemned the party's views as "deadly and murderous," in response to a former National Front candidate who compared the minister, who is black, to a monkey.

France's far-right National Front (FN) is set to take legal action against the country's most prominent black politician over disparaging comments she made in response to being compared to a monkey.

The row began last week when a prospective FN candidate for municipal elections next year said on television that she would prefer to see Justice Minister Christiane Taubira "in a tree swinging from the branches rather than in government."

The party immediately dropped the candidate, but Taubira, who is from French Guiana, on Saturday responded with a fierce salvo against the "deadly and murderous thought" of the FN.

"It's blacks in tree branches, Arabs in the sea, homosexuals in the Seine, Jews in the oven and so on," she said.

The FN, an anti-immigration, eurosceptic party, in turn responded by saying it would sue Taubira for defamation, to "uphold the rules of democratic and republican debate and the honour of millions of French who vote for the party."

In a statement, it also asked whether Taubira could stay on as minister.

The CRAN – a French umbrella group of associations that fight discrimination against black people – reacted to the row on Monday by saying "the world has turned upside down."

"Christiane Taubira is insulted by an FN candidate, and in the end it's the minister who is taken to court by the National Front," Louis-Georges Tin, head of the organisation, said in a statement.

In its statement, the CRAN organisation also denounced what it said was a drift to the right of French politics.

"The (rightwing opposition) UMP imitates the FN, and the Socialist party imitates the UMP. We are now reaping the fruit and the poison of this slow and terrifying drift - brazen racism," it said.

France 2 television last Thursday revealed a photo montage Leclere had posted on her Facebook page, showing a baby monkey, with a caption underneath reading “At 18 months”, alongside Taubira, with the caption “Now.”

Leclere published the image on her Facebook page on August 31st, but has since deleted it on the advice of friends, according to France 2.

During a documentary entitled “The new faces of the National Front?”, Leclere was confronted with the image, but defended publishing it, repeatedly insisting Taubira was “une sauvage”, which can translate as "wild animal" or "savage".

“Honestly, she’s a wild animal, coming on TV with that devil’s smile,” said Leclere.

“I’d prefer to see her swinging from a tree than in government,” she added, denying that she or the photo were racist, claiming “I have friends who are black.”

The scandal comes at a time when efforts by National Front leader Marine Le Pen to clean up the image of the party appeared to have been yielding results, following their shock by-election victory in Brignoles two weeks ago.

The party, once universally-regarded as anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic, has undergone a project of "dédiabolisation" ("un-demonising") since Le Pen took over as leader from her father Jean-Marie in 2011.

Indeed, Le Pen recently went so far as to deny the party was "of the extreme right," and threatened legal action against journalists who labelled them as such. The plausibility of Le Pen's claim, however, will take a hit from today's racism debacle.

"This is completely scandalous," Aline Le Bail-Kremer from anti-racism group SOS Racisme told The Local last Friday.

"Marine Le Pen has been giving us all a good lecture on how her party isn't extremist, or racist, or anti-Semitic or homophobic. But once again, we see this from their members," she added.

Last month another National Front election candidate was suspended after posting a picture of a burning Israeli flag on his Facebook profile.

Here's a short video of Leclere being confronted with the image by a France 2 journalist. The exchange is in French, but the then National Front candidate can be seen enthusiastically admitting she posted it, before launching into something of a tirade, calling Taubira a "wild animal", and condemning her "devil's smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff3RiWj3AF0

 

[Odoul]

DAMN! France too?

Guess that's another one off the list.

 

[Wallach]

“I’d prefer to see her swinging from a tree than in government,” she added, denying that she or the photo were racist, claiming “I have friends who are black.”

Really? Really? Come on. No way.

 

[speculawyer]

It is nice to know that other countries also have politics that are as petty and pathetic as our own.

 

[mr2xxx]

Say something racist then "I have black friends". It works every time 0% of the time.

 

[Aristion]

I think women are inferior, but trust me I'm not a misogynist! I love my wife and daughters.

 

[CHEEZMO™]

Fuck the FN forever.

 

[siddhu33]

“I’d prefer to see her swinging from a tree than in government,” she added, denying that she or the photo were racist, claiming “I have friends who are black.”

The mental gymnastics to make this work...

 

[Tallshortman]

I don't understand how blatantly racist parties like these get significant votes in Europe, I get most of europe is pretty anti-immigration but this is so ridiculous for post industrialized nations.

 

[UnluckyKate]

The mental gymnastics to make this work...

for having seen the video, it's even more amazing seeing her trying to find something to say to justify the picture. It's like she has no argument against her but she just throw " yay she's a savage" ... ok ? " But I have black friend " ... hum... ok ?

Totally out of place. It was crazy. I don't even understand myself what ways in her mind she took to put these two sentences together. It almost felt like it was edited haha

 

[General Choomin]

Hanging from a tree? Sounds like a lynching.

 

[jerry1594]

The far right love to twist the narrative around. It's so fucking exasperating.

 

[MGrant]

I wouldn't mind a law requiring anyone who uses the "I have black friends" defense to provide a contact number for just one black friend who can verify these claims.

 

[GraveHorizon]

Holy shit at the image. Straight-up racist. How far we've come, but not really apparently.

“I’d prefer to see her swinging from a tree than in government,” she added, denying that she or the photo were racist, claiming “I have friends who are black.”

Maybe she didn't mean it in the murderous racist sense of lynching, but in the regular racist sense of what a monkey would naturally do.

 

[MWS Natural]

I wouldn't mind a law requiring anyone who uses the "I have black friends" defense to provide a contact number for just one black friend who can verify these claims.

And these "friends" would then be contacted and notified of said occurrence.

"So do you still consider this pereson your friend after these comments?"





It's funny, during the Trayvon Martin trial I deleted a couple of people off of my friends list because of ignorant/racist posts. I wondered how many people lost their token black "friend" after I blocked them.

 

[HovaHovito]

I have friends who are green

 

[double jump]

probably too late

 

[Trouble]

National Front is a really fascist sounding name for a political party. Sounds like they live up to it.

 

[jerry1594]

National Front is a really fascist sounding name for a political party. Sounds like they live up to it.

It's also the name of the foremost white supremacist party in the US (which is actually really small, though because of the stigma attached to be a racist, I'm sure the number of closeted racists far exceeds open ones). Terms like guard/vanguard/front are popular with neofascist and white supremacist groups.

 

[MistakenMobius]

National Front is a really fascist sounding name for a political party. Sounds like they live up to it.

the name come from a WWII communist resistance group

 

[xbhaskarx]

It is nice to know that other countries also have politics that are as petty and pathetic as our own.

The elder Le Pen made it to the runoff election not so long ago...

 

[Qvoth]

“I have friends who are black.”

even after this monkey incident?

 

[Kabouter]

I'd argue this was a new low for the FN, but it really isn't. Anyone even considering voting for them should be deeply ashamed of themselves.

 

[WARCOCK]

I'd argue this was a new low for the FN, but it really isn't. Anyone even considering voting for them should be deeply ashamed of themselves.

Yes.

 

[Skeyser]

Maybe she didn't mean it in the murderous racist sense of lynching, but in the regular racist sense of what a monkey would naturally do.

Calling her a monkey isn't much better...

 

[Walshicus]

I don't understand how blatantly racist parties like these get significant votes in Europe, I get most of europe is pretty anti-immigration but this is so ridiculous for post industrialized nations.

If America had a multi-party political tradition you'd get them too.


Sort-of tangent: that's an adorable baby monkey picture.

 

[Kabouter]

If America had a multi-party political tradition you'd get them too.


Sort-of tangent: that's an adorable baby monkey picture.

If America had a multi-party political tradition and had a party this racist, they probably still wouldn't be polling as the nation's largest.

 

[Timedog]

Glad the thread title got changed, it was bad.

 

[Uncle]

“I’d prefer to see her swinging from a tree than in government,” she added, denying that she or the photo were racist, claiming “I have friends who are black.”

Not only is she a racist, she is a snivelling coward as well.

 

[Sotha Sil]

The FN has been ramping up its electoral machinery for several years, and hires complete idiots as a result to get candidates in each and every district. Which is fortunate, in a way: complete idiots have a hard time hiding their racism, which ends up biting the populists in the ass.

I'm not sure what it will take to flush them out of our democracy, though. At this point I doubt that economic growth alone would do the trick.

 

[lexi]

I think women are inferior, but trust me I'm not a misogynist! I love my wife and daughters.

You joke, but Australia just elected someone who has said this.

 

[Jasup]

I don't understand how blatantly racist parties like these get significant votes in Europe, I get most of europe is pretty anti-immigration but this is so ridiculous for post industrialized nations.

They usually get the Eurosceptic vote too, these are the populist parties that have sprung up to "challenge the old political establishment, monolithic parties and crooked politicians who have given all the power to Brussels". And by their own words the parties are not racist, only their members are...

 

[Mael]

National Front is a really fascist sounding name for a political party. Sounds like they live up to it.

It's also the name of the foremost white supremacist party in the US (which is actually really small, though because of the stigma attached to be a racist, I'm sure the number of closeted racists far exceeds open ones). Terms like guard/vanguard/front are popular with neofascist and white supremacist groups.

Holy shit guys come on!
It's also and most certainly the name of one of the prominent resistant comunist group during the last world war!
They stole the name and now we're left with racist douchbags.
They basically took the names of heroes and brought into the mud.

The fact that this party is even taken seriously and there's actually people stupid enough to believe anything these lying incompetent bastards even spew makes my tension rise.
They should be jailed for everything they did, the most worthless scum that ever wore a French ID card are these people.

Glad the thread title got changed, it was bad.

What was it?

 

[Acorn]

I don't understand how blatantly racist parties like these get significant votes in Europe, I get most of europe is pretty anti-immigration but this is so ridiculous for post industrialized nations.

Economic woes=Growth in far right movements.

 

[Mael]

Economic woes=Growth in far right movements.

Actually it's growth in extremists movements, not just far right.
the far right is more popular because they found a "pretty" face for tv and their 'arguments' are not class warfare crap of the 80's (as in 1880's)

 

[Roland Deschain]

Fucking racist pieces of shit.

 

[lazer_bean]

DAMN! France too?

Guess that's another one off the list.

yeah right, every single person in the country thinks just like this woman.

France what, by the way ? And what list ?

 

[Palette Swap]

I don't think the candidate is the one suing.

My understanding is it went this way: the FN candidate did all her blatantly racist stuff, she was expelled from the party. Meanwhile, Taubira made declarations about how this was in line with what the FN truly is and now, Le Pen is suing her for slandering her party. Because Le Pen wants to distance her party from that far right label.

I'm certainly not defending the FN here, I think Taubira is on the money, it's just the title seems inaccurate to me.

 

[ComputerMKII]

What was it?

I named the title 'Far-right party and black politician troll each other, lawsuit ensues'.

I thought it was a fair and accurate title because the blame is shared. Just because the FN is a despicable party and Taubira had every right to be offended doesn't mean you can accuse a party of murder, burning Jews in ovens (which is what nazi Germany did in the 1940s) or calling for such acts, and not expose yourself to a lawsuit. It wholly qualifies as trolling and, unless she can prove the FN did what she says they did, there is legitimate ground for a defamation suit.

I'm not saying bringing this to justice is the smart thing to do (people should be allowed to say whatever the fuck they want in public, in my opinion), though. Taubira shouldn't have honored the FN by paying attention to them. There are better ways to denounce the ridiculous program and values of the FN, beyond just going 'OMG NAZIS!' Meanwhile, the FN member missed a great occasion to shut her mouth (and she was rightfully kicked off the candidates' list).

Edit: By the way, the public prosecution has started an investigation against Anne-Sophie Leclere (likely for incitement to racial hatred).

I don't think the candidate is the one suing.

My understanding is it went this way: the FN candidate did all her blatantly racist stuff, she was expelled from the party. Meanwhile, Taubira made declarations about how this was in line with what the FN truly is and now, Le Pen is suing her for slandering her party. Because Le Pen wants to distance her party from that far right label.

I'm certainly not defending the FN here, I think Taubira is on the money, it's just the title seems inaccurate to me.

True.

 

[Mael]

I named the title 'Far-right party and black politician troll each other, lawsuit ensues'.

I thought it was a fair and accurate title because the blame is shared. Just because the FN is a despicable party and Taubira had every right to be offended doesn't mean you can accuse a party of murder, burning Jews in ovens (which is what nazi Germany did in the 1940s) or calling for such acts, and not expose yourself to a lawsuit. It wholly qualifies as trolling and, unless she can prove the FN did what she says they did, there is legitimate ground for a defamation suit.

I'm not saying bringing this to justice is the smart thing to do (people should be allowed to say whatever the fuck they want in public, in my opinion), though. Taubira shouldn't have honored the FN by paying attention to them and the FN member missed a great occasion to shut her mouth.

When you have the former president, and honorary president for life, of the party being a known public and convicted holocauste denier, you kinda lose the right to defend yourself on that front.
I have little to no sympathy for Taubira but she chose her words well and actually used references to multiple events where people that were close to that movement did despicable things.
She could probably win that lawsuit.
Thread title was indeed inappropriate.

 

[Hypron]

Maybe she didn't mean it in the murderous racist sense of lynching, but in the regular racist sense of what a monkey would naturally do.

Yeah, that's what she meant. There isn't any confusion when you read that in French. And it's fucking disgusting. I wonder how idiots like that even get elected in the first place.

 

[Kabouter]

Actually it's growth in extremists movements, not just far right.
the far right is more popular because they found a "pretty" face for tv and their 'arguments' are not class warfare crap of the 80's (as in 1880's)

Well, I don't know, the extreme left certainly isn't experiencing much success here. Even our socialist party has mellowed over the years and can at most be described as social-democratic rather than socialist. The extreme right on the other hand (Geert Wilders' PVV) is experiencing a huge surge in support.

 

[leadbelly]

The elder Le Pen made it to the runoff election not so long ago...

This is true, but to be fair, it doesn't really tell the whole story though.

Nevertheless, Chirac did not even have to campaign in the second round, as widespread anti-Le Pen protests from the media and public opinion culminated on May Day, with an estimated 1.5 million demonstrators across France.[104] Chirac also refused to debate with Le Pen, and the traditional televised debate was cancelled.[105] In the end, Chirac won the presidential run-off with an unprecedented 82.2% of the vote and with 71% of his votes—according to polls—cast simply "to block Le Pen.

 

[Mael]

Well, I don't know, the extreme left certainly isn't experiencing much success here. Even our socialist party has mellowed over the years and can at most be described as social-democratic rather than socialist. The extreme right on the other hand (Geert Wilders' PVV) is experiencing a huge surge in support.

Well yeah same here.
I'd say it's because the far left is basically in the same place as they were 20 or so years ago.
The far right would be in the same position (see civitas for example of a far right movement that is mostly hasbeen) but their money and marketing push reinvented themselves.
They're less openly racists and intolerant (barring these kinds of outbursts), but make no mistake they're the same racist Dbags that fap to petain's imagery as before.

 

[Dryk]

You joke, but Australia just elected someone who has said this.

Dammit you beat me to it

 

[dapperbandit]

Parties like the FN become more popular in times like this where there's a lot of discontent and economic hardship, it's just the way it works.

I think I read somewhere that the FN is one of these parties without a real base that does well all over the country but because of the electoral system in France they have little representation in the French parliament.

I was in the south of France near Montpellier a couple of months ago and was talking to my Dad (who lives there) about some of this stuff. According to him Francois Hollande has been an incredible disappointment to so many people and that the reality is a lot of people voted for hollande simply because they didn't want Sarkozy.

Speaking of Sarkozy, here's what he had to say about the FN after they won that local election recently:

“What happened in Brignoles is just a rehearsal. It will intensify, get worse,” adding: “The FN will triumph everywhere. That’s what happens when you have the crappest Left and the stupidest Right in the world.”

 

[Diablos]

Someone call the Tea Party, they've got some legit competition in the "how hateful and obstructionist can a political party be" category.

 

[Pizza con salsiccia]

With all that happened in the country in the past year and a half... and if the situation does not get better... Marine Le Pen will be in the final round of the next presidential election.

Cannot see I won't be disappointed, even if I cannot vote for her party, ever.


Regarding this controversy... I'm not that preoccupied. At least, we have laws to punish these kinds of things in my country (I'm French). Whereas here, in Italy... nothing can be done.

 

[DBT85]

I have friends who are black never ever gets old.

 

[Mudcrab]

It is nice to know that other countries also have politics that are as petty and pathetic as our own.

Racism and hatred are everywhere on earth. Forming a political party based on prejudice is a successful strategy in number of countries.