French President Emmanuel Macron wants elected officials convicted of anti-Semitic or other racist acts to face automatic disqualification from holding office.
Speaking at the Élysée Palace today, Macron paid tribute to Ilan Halimi, the young Jewish man abducted and tortured to death in the Paris region 20 years ago.
The President said France must intensify its fight against anti-Semitism, arguing that punishments given in such cases are rarely adequate: “All too often, the sentences handed down to perpetrators of anti-Semitic offences and crimes seem derisory.
“In the interests of transparency and truth, I would like to see the introduction of precise monitoring of sentences and penalties,” he said.
Macron insisted the government and parliament would move to toughen sanctions for racist and anti-Semitic offences, stressing that elected officials, as “custodians of the Republic”, must be held to the highest standards.
While noting that courts are independently examining statements made by certain office-holders, he said future legislation should impose a mandatory penalty of ineligibility for those found guilty of discriminatory acts or remarks.
“The government and parliament will work to strengthen the penalties for anti-Semitic and racist acts. Our elected representatives are the guardians of the Republic and must remain so,” he insisted.
“The courts are dealing with the statements made by some of them, and the judicial authorities are doing their work in complete independence.
“For the future, I would like to see a mandatory penalty of ineligibility introduced for anti-Semitic, racist and discriminatory acts and comments.
“Schools, the justice system and the whole of society must be mobilised, including the state, the government, all public services and everyone in the Republic,” Macron said.
He also called for a broad national mobilisation to confront the problem.
In his speech, Macron condemned anti-Semitism from across the political spectrum, including: “the far-left anti-Semitism that seeks to replace the class struggle with a supposed racial struggle, and which competes with the far-right antisemitism, with its clichés about power and wealth”.
France’s left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) has been accused multiple times of anti-Semitism.
