Being rude to President of France now allowed: Lawmakers repeal 130-year-old ban after ruling by European human rights court

European Court of Human Rights ruled France violated a protester's right to free speech when he was prosecuted for calling Nicolas Sarkozy a 'jerk'

Current French president Francois Hollande regularly mocked, with his figure earning him the nickname 'flanby' after a wobbly caramel dessert



'Jerk': The change follows a ruling that France violated a demonstrator's freedom of expression when he referred to Nicolas Sarkozy with the word

Being rude to the President of France is no longer an automatic criminal offence, France’s parliament agreed today.

In the interests of free speech, MPs revoked legislation dating back to 1881 when anything judged to have ‘offended the head of state’ risked an automatic fine.

The change followed the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling in March that France violated a demonstrator’s right to freedom of expression when he referred to Nicolas Sarkozy as a ‘jerk’.

Mr Sarkozy, the notoriously aggressive 5ft 5ins conservative, became the butt of numerous jokes during his five years in office, which ended last year.

But when a demonstrator held up a placard reading ‘Get Lost Jerk’ at a Sarkozy meeting in western France in 2008, he received a criminal conviction and a fine of around 25 pounds.

This was despite exactly the same expression being used by Sarkozy himself months earlier while he was attending an agricultural show in Paris.

Last year ECHR deemed the punishment handed down to Sarkozy’s tormentor as being disproportionate and a violation of freedom of expression, as the act was a ‘satirical remark.’

The ECHR acknowledged that the insult constituted ‘criticism of a political nature’ for which ‘freedom of expression was of the highest importance.’

Now anyone who chooses to insult a serving French president will have to be pursued through the libel courts.

Francois Hollande, the current Socialist French president, is regularly mocked, often by people using his nickname of ‘Flanby’, after a wobbly caramel pudding.

Earlier this month it emerged that Sarkozy views his successor as a ‘ridiculous little fat man who dyes his hair’.

Barely disguised hatred between the two politicians has been well documented, but it was the first time that Sarkozy’s bitter language was reported in public, by l’Express, the highly respected news magazine.

Sarkozy, 58, was roundly beaten by the portly Socialist, who is also 58, in last year’s presidential election – and both men are seen as comic figures.

Flanby: Current French president Francois Hollande, whose figure earned him a nickname inspired by a wobbly caramel dessert. He is even less popular than Mr Sarkozy, who has called him a 'ridiculous little fat man'

When Sarkozy was head of state, his third wife Carla Bruni put him on a fitness programme aimed at making him leaner, fitter and younger looking.

Before that the diminutive Sarkozy - nicknamed 'Bling-Bling' because of his love of tacky status symbols - was himself mocked for being a chubby little man.

He continued to wear platform heels, and to surround himself with smaller men in an attempt to look taller, but lost a great deal of weight through constant work-outs and giving up chocolate.

Hollande, in contrast, has failed to lose the tubby image and shake off the Flanby nick-name.