The leaders of two parties at opposite ends of the French political spectrum are in trouble over anti-Semitic canards, and neither is repentant.
Jean-Marie Le Pen of the extreme right-wing National Front, appearing before the Paris Court of Justice, which convicted him of “racial defamation,” repeated his view that “Freemasonry and international Judaism” are opposed to the national interests of France.
Jean Briere, suspended by the ecology-minded, pacifist Green Party as its spokesman last week, refused to retract his charge that “Israel and the Zionist lobby” were responsible for the Persian Gulf war.
His only regret, the 58-year-old Briere said, was that his opinions, expressed in an internal party document, had been given wide publicity.
The Green’s national leadership left Briere’s fate up to its Lyon branch in southeastern France, which he represents.
The local party delegation decided Friday not to expel him, but removed him as spokesman.
“Zionist lobby” has a particularly derogatory connotation in France as well as elsewhere, construed as a code word for “Jews.”
Briere wrote, “The destruction of Iraq was the main objective of Israel, a racist, militaristic, theocratic and expansionist state with a policy based on permanent war.”
He claimed further that the “influence of the Zionist lobby in the United States had been decisive in tilting the scales in favor of war.”
Le Pen’s implication that Judaism and Freemasonry are by nature treasonous is classic 19th-century anti-Semitism, which was updated by the Nazis.
The latest lawsuit against Le Pen was filed by several human rights groups for views he offered in an interview published in the daily Present in 1989.
His latest court appearance followed two he made in French courts last month. Le Pen was fined twice in March for offensive remarks in which he slurred Holocaust victims.
Le Pen, who was greeted in court last week by dozens of supporters, said in his defense that many Jewish organizations are openly international, implying by his statement that international groups per se are opposed to national interests.
He will be sentenced on May 31.
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