Zemmour was fired by the ECtHR for “discriminatory” remarks made in 2016.

More than six years after the events, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) fired far-right polemicist Erik Zemmour on Tuesday. The body upheld his conviction by French justice for provoking discrimination and religious hatred against the Muslim community following remarks made in France 5 in 2016.

“The Court considers that the interference with the applicant’s exercise of his right to freedom of expression was necessary in a democratic society in order to protect the rights of others,” the ECtHR explains. The latter believes that in this way the French courts did not violate the candidate’s freedom of speech in the last presidential election.

The former journalist made such a statement on September 16, 2016 on the set of “C à vous” as part of the promotion of his book “Five-Year Term for Nothing”. The polemicist, in particular, believed that Muslims should be given “the choice between Islam and France” and that France “had lived under invasion for 30 years”, arguing that “in countless French suburbs, where many young girls are veiled”, the “struggle for the Islamization of the territory”, “jihad”.

His appeal was dismissed in 2019.

After a first verdict in 2017 and then a new verdict on appeal in May 2018, Eric Zemmour appealed to the Court of Cassation. He was finally sentenced to a €3,000 fine for inciting religious hatred in September 2019, before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced his arrest.

The ECtHR, the Council of Europe’s judicial body, “considers that these remarks were not limited to criticism of Islam, but contained, given the context of the attacks in which they took place, a discriminatory intent in relation to nature to call on listeners to reject and exclude the Muslim community.”

“Having regard to the State’s margin of appreciation in the present case and the applicant’s order to pay a fine of EUR 3,000, which is not excessive, the Court is satisfied that the impugned interference (Editor’s note: in Eric Zemmour’s right to freedom of expression) was proportionate to the aim pursued,” assessed by the court in Strasbourg.