Unaccompanied minors, remarks on Vichy, controversial campaign clip… a busy legal agenda for Eric Zemmour

After the controversy front, here is the legal front. Eric Zemmour will have to include in his campaign agenda a series of court appointments.

The first, planned for a long time, is for this Monday, January 17. The far-right candidate awaits, at 1:30 p.m., the decision of the 17th correctional chamber of Paris relating to his trial, last November, for incitement to hatred. However, he should not go there. The polemicist was tried for his remarks on unaccompanied minor migrants, made on CNews in 2020. He had described them as “thieves, murderers, rapists”, adding that it was necessary to “return”.

The prosecutor requested “100 days fine at 100 euros” for words “contemptuous, outrageous”, believing that “the limits of freedom of expression have been crossed”.

The second meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 20. Eric Zemmour is on appeal for contestation of crimes against humanity. The comments in question were made in October 2019, again on CNews. The polemicist had reiterated his remarks on Marshal Pétain, considering that the latter had, by his action, contributed to “save french jews” during the Occupation.

These remarks had caused an outcry, especially among historians specializing in the period. A fine of 10,000 euros had been requested at first instance, but he had been acquitted in February 2021, the 17th chamber of the Paris court having found that the remarks had been made “point-blank during a debate on the war in Syria”, although they contain “the denial of participation [du maréchal Pétain] to the policy of extermination of the Jews carried out by the Nazi regime”.

According to our information, his lawyer should request the postponement of the hearing, less than three months before the first round of the presidential election.

The polemicist is finally assigned on January 27 for his campaign clip released on November 30 – the one where he announced his candidacy -, a film which had sparked protests due to the use of archive images and excerpts cinematographic without authorization, according to information from BFMTV confirmed on Sunday at LCI.

Eric Zemmour will thus have to answer for suspicions of “copyright infringement” before the Paris court. Among the plaintiffs are, according to BFMTV, the companies EuropaCorp, Gaumont and the director Luc Besson, for images taken from the film Jeanne D’Arc.