French Lawmakers to Vote Soon on Measures Punishing Racist Acts

The National Assembly is expected to vote shortly on a series of measures that would toughen existing laws against racism and make denials of the Holocaust a felony punishable by a mandatory prison term.

A not-so-veiled threat of civil war emanated from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s racist National Front, the extreme right-wing organization bound to be most affected by the proposed legislation.

The new measures would designate racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobic agitation and denial of the Holocaust as felonies punishable by prison sentences.

The legislation would strip citizens of their civic rights, including the right to vote or to be elected to office, if found guilty of incitement to racism. It provides mandatory prison sentences for incitement to racial or anti-Semitic crimes.

The bill would modify existing laws on freedom of the press, and for that reason is opposed by the National Federation of French Publishers and by several journalists unions.

Originally proposed by the Communist Party, but extensively amended by the Assembly’s Law Committee, the measure has received cautious support from the governing Socialist Party of President Francois Mitterrand.

But the two main opposition parties — the Union for French Democracy of former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, and the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic of former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac — announced Wednesday they would vote against the bill as it now stands.

NATIONAL FRONT STAGES PROTEST

The most vociferous opposition to the proposed legislation came from Le Pen’s National Front, which staged a mass protest demonstration outside Parliament while the measure was being debated in the lower chamber Tuesday.

Police estimated the crowd at 4,000 demonstrators. The National Front claimed 40,000. They carried placards reading “France for the French,” “Le Pen to the Elysee” — the presidential palace — and “Mitterrand to the Museum.”

Le Pen warned the deputies that if the law is adopted, his followers might resort to “extra-parliamentary” methods to express displeasure.

Le Pen, who has publicly questioned the authenticity of the Holocaust, said nothing about Jews, but alluded to “international pressures and lobbies” that threaten French sovereignty.

His speech, as usual, focused on France’s large influx of immigrants, which has become a major domestic political issue.

The National Front is believed directly or indirectly involved in the recent wave of violent racist incidents directed generally against Arab immigrants from North Africa.

More than a half-dozen temporary residents, known as “guest workers,” have been killed during the last six months by firearms or bombs planted in hostels for foreign workers.

Although Le Pen has usually refrained from overt anti-Semitic statements, some of his closest followers are rabid anti-Semites.

The French Jewish community has energetically opposed him since the National Front gained national stature 10 years ago. The Jewish community has urged all French political parties to shun direct or indirect collaboration with Le Pen.