Raphaël Enthoven acquitted of insult after describing LFI as “deeply anti-Semitic” | EUROtoday

The thinker Raphaël Enthoven, prosecuted for public insult by La France insoumise (LFI) for having described it as “detestable, violent, conspiratorial, passionately anti-Semitic movement”was acquitted on Thursday, November 6, by the Paris felony court docket. “These comments did not exceed the admissible limits of freedom of expression”estimated the magistrates.

The man who can be a radio (Europe 1) and TV (Arte) columnist was summoned to look in court docket by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s motion for a tweet revealed on 1^er May 2024, in response to the exfiltration, that day, of an indication in Saint-Etienne, below the jeers and the throwing of paint, of Raphaël Glucksmann, head of the Place publique-Socialist Party record, greater than a month earlier than the European elections.

Mr. Enthoven then wrote, on the social community X, echoing the offended reactions of Mr. Glucksmann after his expulsion from the procession: “France insoumise is a detestable, violent, conspiratorial, passionately anti-Semitic movement. And they are so stupid. (…) We can’t stand this club of deficients anymore. » As Release had narrated, LFI was ultimately not involved in this action, claimed by the Young Communists of the Loire – an LFI activist had confirmed having participated in it on an individual basis.

“An outrageous reach” in direction of LFI

LFI had filed a grievance in opposition to Raphaël Enthoven’s tweet, demanding 10,000 euros in damages. The court docket rejected the entire get together’s requests. Certainly, famous the magistrates, the phrases of the thinker have “an outrageous scope” with regard to LFI and “contain an offensive character”particularly since Raphaël Enthoven throws “the discrediting of this movement as a whole, in a generalizing and essentializing way”.

But these contentious messages on “in the wake” of a “major debate of general interest sparked” by this violence which occurred this 1^er May 2024, “in which responsibility for this climate of hatred and violence against a backdrop of anti-Semitism, as denounced by Raphaël Glucksmann, was attributed to La France insoumise”thought of the court docket.

The judges once more thought of that this debate took “also its source in a whole set of recurring controversies about practices and remarks deemed violent, outrageous, conspiratorial and/or anti-Semitic by members” of LFI.

LFI, “the first anti-Semitic party in France”

After the judgment is pronounced, Raphaël Enthoven reiterated that “France insoumise is an anti-Semitic movement, passionately anti-Semitic”. “It is even the first anti-Semitic party in France, he added. And saying it is part of the debate. Now it’s like that, it’s an opinion. It’s not a crime. » “Justice is not a stifler of democratic debate for those who have nothing to do with democracy”, “Every citizen has the right to criticize a political party as they see fit”additionally reacted his lawyer, Richard Malka.

LFI’s lawyer, Mathieu Davy, for his half denounced to Agence France-Presse a “scandalous decision”, “astounding”in response to him a “attack on the party, its leaders, its members, its voters”Who “totally calls into question the right to insult”. He introduced “consider very seriously whether to appeal”which is just doable, for civil events, to request doable damages.

“Insoumise France is stunned by such a decision, which amounts to recognizing a privilege of right of insult granted to some against others”wrote the get together coordinator, Manuel Bompard, on X.