Nicolas Dupont-Aignan is an MP and a former French presidential candidate. During last year’s campaign he tweeted about the “migratory invasion” and “population replacement”. For that “crime” he has been tried, convicted, and assessed for a €5,000 fine.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is the accompanying article about the case, also translated by Ava Lon:

“Migratory Invasion”: Suspended sentence of €5,000 fine required against Dupont-Aignan

April 4, 2018

[Photo caption: 5,000 euros fine against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for provocation to hatred or discrimination. — Agence France-Presse. The prosecutor’s office in Paris has requested a fine of €5,000 suspended, against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for having evoked a “migratory invasion” in a tweet in 2017.]

The prosecutor’s office in Paris on Wednesday ordered a fine of €5,000 against Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the president of Debout La France, who was tried for calling for hatred or discrimination, for evoking a “migratory invasion”.

“The Population Replacement is now!”

On January 17, 2017, the MP for the Essonne, then a candidate for the presidential election, tweeted the following words: “In 2016 the socialists compensated for the decline in birth rate by the migratory invasion. “The [Great] Population Replacement is [happening] now!”

The prosecution began the process after a report by the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra).

“Uninhibited racist speech”

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was not present to face the 17th chamber of the Criminal Court. His lawyers have asserted his parliamentary immunity, which, according to the prosecution and Licra, cannot enable him to escape prosecution in this particular case.

“We have a leading politician, a declared candidate for the presidential election, who quietly repeats, publicly, of his own accord, a conspiracy and racist theory born in the bowels of the French far right at the beginning of the previous decade,” the thesis of the “great replacement” of Renaud Camus, denounced the prosecutor.

“Not condemning him would mean to permit opening wide the floodgates of the uninhibited racist speech,” “pointing out all those who don’t belong to the national community”, migrants and immigrants, continued the representative of the prosecution.

He requested a €5,000 suspended fine, against the MP, “a first and, I hope, last warning”.

“For once, when a politician tells the truth”

For their part, lawyers for Nicolas Dupont-Aignan pleaded for his release, arguing the “truth” of his remarks and insisting that the politician was targeting the Socialist Party rather than immigration.

This is a somewhat “nasty” parody of the slogan of former President François Hollande’s “Change is now,” said Philippe Prigent, and “the purpose of this tweet is to call people not to vote for the Socialist candidate, that’s all.” “For once” when a politician “is telling the truth, we might not want to punish him,” he pleaded.

The civil party, Licra, asked for €5,000 euros in damages. The case will be decided on June 6th.