EU parliament lifts Jean-Marie Le Pen’s immunity in French racism case

STRASBOURG, France — The European Parliament on Wednesday lifts the immunity of far-right National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and of a fellow party member in response to a French racism investigation.

Le Pen, an MEP and honorary president of the party led by his daughter Marine, is being investigated for alleged “public defamation” with a racist nature over remarks made in August 2009.

He said immigrants or people of immigrant origin were behind 90 percent of crimes.

Mylene Troszczynski, another National Front member, is also being investigated for “public defamation” with a racist nature and incitement to hatred or violence for a Twitter post in September 2015.

The post was a photograph of fully veiled women gathered at a family allowance department, but the image was deemed to have been a fake.

In voting for lifting the immunity, the European members of parliament say there is no reason to suspect that the French legal action was motivated by a desire to block the work of the two National Front members in the Strasbourg assembly.

— AFP