Holocaust Denier Runs for Paris City Council
Growing Threat: Far right leader Marine Le Pen is rising in popularity in France. Image by getty images
France’s far-right National Front party placed a Holocaust denier on its list of candidates for the municipal elections in Paris.
The candidate, Pierre Panet, wrote in 2012 that he “shares the analysis of Roger Garaudy,” a convicted Holocaust denier. The L’Express daily reported on his candidacy Wednesday.
The same year, he told the AFP news agency: “I haven’t changed. I always credit Robert Faurisson but I refrain from elaborating these theses because it is forbidden by law.”
Faurisson was also convicted of denying the Holocaust. He claimed the gas chambers were an invention. Panet is running for election on the National Front’s ticket for the 12th arrondissement in eastern Paris. Municipal elections are scheduled to be held on March 23 and March 30.
The party leader in the arrondissement, Christian Vauge, told AFP he has instructed Panet to adhere strictly to the party’s platform.
“I told him, let’s forget all that you thought in the past. I asked him to stick to the official line,” he said.
Separately, the center-right UDI party dropped a former candidate from their list for the municipality of Schiltigheim near Strasbourg after regional prosecutors said she would stand trial for inciting racial hatred in connection with anti-Semitic statements they suspect she made online.
The candidate, Hayat Belaredj, is believed to have written on Facebook: “The Jewish danger, what a disgrace” about outgoing mayor Raphael Nisand, who is Jewish, Le Monde reported on Tuesday.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
