Freedom of speech in France? Think again…
A democratically priced eatery appealing to the latest Letter generation and located on the Chaussée d’Ixelles, in the heart of the Brussels commune (borough) of Ixelles, just 500 meters from the Aparthotel where I am currently spending a month transitioning from a sold house to a purchased apartment, has the quirky sign out on the sidewalk: “Liberté, Egalité et Poulet!” Indeed, hot roast chicken is their mainstay, served with frites and mayo.
If only the traditions of the French revolution were all in jest like this eatery’s welcoming message.
But no, the French Revolution was…a bloody affair in which all semblance of rule of law was tossed out the window, including, of course freedom of speech.
Regrettably, that essential Bolshevism in French political life did not come to an end in 1815 when the Napoleonic wars were brought to a halt on the Waterloo battlefield just 20 kilometers from where I write to you. The worst of the French Revolution is still with us, as I learned this evening from a petition that was sent my way by the offspring of White Russian émigrés who settled in this country a hundred years ago. White Russians know a thing or two about Bolshevism and can be counted upon to denounce its rearing its ugly head in the Hexagon today. They are keenly interested in the issue because whatever the French in France say and do, French speakers in Belgium say and do following a brief delay.
What I am talking about is the project now underway in the French parliament to further turn the screws on anyone betraying present day political correctness on issues of gender, ethnicity and all the other key elements of identity politics in PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS. Not in public, not on the airwaves, but in the privacy of your own home or otherwise behind closed doors.
To be specific, the parliament has passed in a first reading a very nasty modification to the existing Article R625-7 of the French penal code, which was itself no gift to free thinkers. The present version of that Article set out by Decree in 2017 reads:
La provocation non publique à la discrimination, à la haine ou à la violence à l'égard d'une personne ou d'un groupe de personnes à raison de leur origine ou de leur appartenance ou de leur non-appartenance, vraie ou supposée, à une ethnie, une nation, une prétendue race ou une religion déterminée est punie de l'amende prévue pour les contraventions de la 5e classe.
Est punie de la même peine la provocation non publique à la haine ou à la violence à l'égard d'une personne ou d'un groupe de personnes à raison de leur sexe, de leur orientation sexuelle ou identité de genre, ou de leur handicap, ainsi que la provocation non publique, à l'égard de ces mêmes personnes, aux discriminations prévues par les articles 225-2 et 432-7.
Linguee.ru renders this into English as follows:
Non-public incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence against a person or a group of persons on the grounds of their origin or their actual or supposed membership or non-membership of a particular ethnic group, nation, alleged race or religion is punishable by a fine of the 5th class.
Non-public incitement to hatred or violence against a person or group of people on the grounds of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, or their disability, as well as non-public incitement to discrimination against these same people, as provided for in articles 225-2 and 432-7, is punishable by the same penalty.
Ok, you may argue, this law was directed against “incitement,” against “violence,” which are all actionable and repugnant.
The new text reads:
Injures, propos diffamatoires ou provoquant à la discrimination des personnes en raison de leur appartenance ethnique ou religieuse, leur identité de genre, etc., lorsque ceux-ci sont non publics, deviennent des délits, punis d’une amende de 3750 €.
Per Linguee.fr:
Insults, defamatory remarks or remarks provoking discrimination against people on the grounds of their ethnic or religious affiliation, gender identity, etc., when these are not public, become offences, punishable by a fine of €3,750.
The new law makes criminally punishable defamation and discrimination in conversations between, shall we say ‘consenting adults,’ in private quarters.
One wonders how remarks made behind closed doors are brought to the attention of the authorities if not by libelous anonymous protectors of public morality worthy of Venice in its worst days.
A petition is now being circulated in France denouncing the proposed new text as ‘dictatorial.’
I bring this to the attention in particular of my American readers who miss the point entirely that in its disunity today, with pro- and anti-Trump forces splitting the population 50:50, there is far greater freedom of speech than here on the Old Continent, and especially in that supposed bastion of liberty, France. M. Macron is not the only thing wrong with France.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024