The Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday confirmed Marine Le Pen’s suspended fine of 500 euros for defamation against Cimade, an association helping migrants, which she had accused of organizing “the illegal immigration network from the Comoros” to Mayotte.
The leader of the National Rally (RN) had accused humanitarian associations of being “sometimes” “accomplices of smugglers”, during an interview broadcast on BFMTV in January 2022.
Remarks made during the 2022 presidential election
To the question “are humanitarian associations complicit in the crime of entry?”, Marine Le Pen, then a candidate in the April 2022 presidential election, replied: “Sometimes yes. They are even accomplices of the smugglers, yes, sometimes.” She then directly targeted Cimade, an association committed to fighting xenophobia and the exclusion of immigrants, for its actions in Mayotte.
“Cimade is actually organising the illegal immigration network from the Comoros” to Mayotte, she said. She finally pointed out the subsidies paid to associations, calling for a stop to paying subsidies “to people who are organising something that is illegal”.
“The limits of freedom of expression have been crossed”
At first instance, in October 2023, she was found guilty of public defamation against an individual, the courts finding that the remarks had “exceeded the amount of exaggeration possible in the context in which they were made” and that “the limits of freedom of expression (had) been crossed”.
Marine Le Pen is due to be tried from September 30th with 26 other people and the RN before the Paris Criminal Court, on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds.