French mayor to face trial for branding increasing numbers of Muslim children a 'problem'
A FRENCH anti-migration mayor will face trial on charges of inciting racial hatred after he said there are too many Muslim schoolchildren in his town, officials have said.
Anti-migration mayor Robert Ménard will face trial on inciting racial hatred
Robert Ménard, the mayor of Beziers, in southern France, is a staunch supporter of Marine Le Pen and branded the increasing numbers of Muslim children in the town a "problem".
The mayor quoted controversial French writer Renaud Camus' 'great replacement' theory in a tweet earlier this year.
On September 1, Mr Ménard tweeted: “#BackToSchool: the living proof of the great replacement. All you need to do is look at old school pictures..."
The theory holds that France is being colonised by Muslim immigrants with the help of the government and the media and that the French are losing touch with their traditional roots and culture as a result.
On September 5, he went on to tell the French radio station LCI that there was a class in Béziers where “91 per cent of the children were Muslim”, before adding that it was “obviously a problem”.
He also said there was “a limit to tolerance”.
The mayor of Beziers said there are too many Muslim schoolchildren in his town
Members of the anti-racism groups Licra and Mrap filed a complaint against Mr Ménard after claiming that both the tweet and his comments were “racist and discriminatory”.
I wasn’t making a value judgment, I was merely stating a fact
But the right-wing mayor has denied the charges, saying that he “never discriminated against anyone” and insisting he was simply “commenting on what was happening in his town”.
He said: “I wasn’t making a value judgment, I was merely stating a fact.”
But Mr Ménard is no stranger to controversy.
Famously anti-Islam, he triggered a flurry of outrage in May 2015 after he said that 64.6 per cent of schoolchildren in Béziers were Muslim.
Mr Ménard’s trial on race hate charges will be held at a Paris court on March 8, 2017.