French far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen has denied breaking hate speech laws by tweeting ‘monstrous’ pictures of ISIS atrocities in a trial she slammed as a politically motivated attempt to silence her.
The leader of the National Rally party appeared in a Paris court today after she was accused of spreading hate by publicising the images of James Foley, an American journalist who was murdered by the terrorist group in 2014.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen today proposed a ban on Muslim headscarves in all public places, seeking to build on a record recent poll putting her almost neck-and-neck with President Emmanuel Macron.
The hijab policy, which would be contested in court and would almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional, saw the 53-year-old return to a familiar campaign theme 15 months from the country’s 2022 presidential election.
‘I consider that the headscarf is an Islamist item of clothing,’ Le Pen told reporters at a press conference where she proposed a new law to ban ‘Islamist ideologies’ which she called ‘totalitarian and murderous.’
