A motion for a resolution calling for the possibility of sanctions for remarks denying or understating the reality of slavery was presented Thursday, February 10 to the National Assembly, its author LREM being alarmed by a trivialization of speeches “racistsespecially from Eric Zemmour.
Read alsoPanorama of slavery in three works
The text was tabled by the LREM deputy from Guadeloupe Olivier Serva, and is co-signed by elected officials on all benches, the majority as well as the opposition. Its inclusion on the agenda of the Palais Bourbon is however very uncertain, less than three weeks before the suspension of the work of the legislature, but Olivier Serva saysnot despairto see him come to the session. Even formally adopted, the resolutionon the criminalization of negationist remarks made on the slave trade and colonial slaverywould remain non-binding. In front of the press, Olivier Serva however assured that the Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti was willing to “take a close interestto this approach.
SEE ALSO -“Juneteenth”: Joe Biden enacts legislation establishing a holiday to mark the end of slavery
Change the freedom of the press law?
Although slavery was recognized as “crime against humanityby a 2001 law, the Constitutional Council ruled in 2017 that it was not possible to sanction its denial. This institution highlighted the difficulties posed by a sanction with regard to freedom of expression, and argued that the slave trade had never been condemned by a French or international court, unlike the Holocaust. Olivier Serva’s motion for a resolution therefore invites the government “to consider amending the legislative provisions-in particular the Freedom of the Press Act of 1881-, to correct the current legal framework which leads “discrimination between victims of crimes against humanity“.
Read alsoThe veil in sport electrifies the National Assembly
Several parliamentarians from various backgrounds supported his proposal, against a background of references to the electoral context. “More than ever, our time sees historical facts exploited by dirty hands“, declared the president of the LFI group Mathilde Panot, denouncing “remarks (on slavery) which take the form of renewed racism“. Olivier Serva mentioned the polemicist and far-right presidential candidate, Eric Zemmour, who in 2021 claimed on television that “what is banal is slavery, all civilizations have been slavers“, or “it was colonization that stopped slavery in Africa“.
SEE ALSO – The bias of Hervé Gattegno: 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz: Against Holocaust denial, repression is not the solution