The president of the extreme-right National Front (FN) party in France, Marine Le Pen, announced she is pursuing a legal case against noted French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy for defamation, after he accused her of “systematically wooing Jewish names in her speeches.”
Levy wrote those words last week in an article for the website of the French Jewish umbrella organisation CRIF, following a violent attack on three young Jews in Villeurbanne last Saturday night.
“Is it really an accident if these incidents arise after a (presidential) campaign in which we saw one of the candidates, Le Pen, systematically wooing Jewish names in her addresses?,” he asked”
In a statement addressing Levy’s words, Marine Le Pen’s lawyer, Wallerand de Saint-Just, declared: “Accusing Marine Le Pen of desecrating Jewish names and also of being responsible for the violent attack in Villeurbanne is particularly reprehensible. We will be calling Mr Levy before a tribunal for this revolting act of defamation”.
Levy was a preferred target of Marine Le Pen in her presidential campaign addresses, for his role alongside former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the military intervention in Libya, a course of action slammed by the UN.