Vote to remove Le Pen’s legal immunity over Isil pictures row
A GROUP of European MPs yesterday voted “overwhelmingly” to lift the immunity of French far-Right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen after she tweeted pictures of Isil violence.
Ms Le Pen, 48, an MEP, is under investigation in France for posting three graphic images of Isil executions on Twitter in 2015, including the beheading of James Foley, the US journalist.
Responding to a request from the French judiciary, members of the legal affairs committee “overwhelmingly voted to lift Le Pen’s immunity,” said Laura Ferrara, of the Eurosceptic 5 Star Movement. An official said 18 MEPs voted in favour of removing Ms Le Pen’s immunity while three voted against. Their decision must now be backed by the whole parliament in a second vote, possibly this week.
If her immunity is lifted, Ms Le Pen faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a €75,000 (£64,000) fine for “publishing violent images”. She did not immediately react to the vote.
However, Florian Philippot, vicepresident of Ms Le Pen’s far-Right Front National party, defended her, saying: “Showing and naming the horror of Islamism allows us to fight against it.”
Ms Le Pen’s immunity has been lifted before. She was prosecuted in 2015 over “incitement to discrimination over people’s religious beliefs” for comparing Muslims praying in public to the Nazi occupation of France during the Second World War. Prosecutors eventually recommended the charges be dropped. Last Friday, Ms Le Pen refused a summons to answer questions in a separate investigation into allegations she misused EU funds to pay FN staff, claiming she is the subject of a political smear campaign. Her chief of staff was placed under formal investigation over the affair last week.
It has been demanded Ms Le Pen pay back nearly £290,000 and, faced with her refusal to repay the money, officials said they will start docking her salary in order to recover the funds.
The party’s judicial woes appear to have no effect on Ms Le Pen’s popular- ity. The latest poll suggests she will come first in round one of France’s presidential elections on April 23, and then lose to Emmanuel Macron, the independent candidate. The former favourite, François Fillon, the conservative candidate for Les Républicains, is expected to finish third.
Cécile Alduy, a Stanford professor and expert on FN, said its supporters are not put off by a judicial and media onslaught. “These don’t perturb their world view, they confirm it,” she said.