Jean-Marie Le Pen fined for linking homosexuality to paedophilia

Far-right French MEP Jean-Marie Le Pen has been fined over a string of homophobic comments.

The former leader of France’s National Front was found guilty of incitement to hate by France’s criminal court on Wednesday over several remarks he made about gay people.

The comments include a homophobic jibe aimed at the surviving husband of a terror attack victim.

Jean-Marie Le Pen targeted grieving husband of terror victim

After policeman Xavier Jugele was shot dead in Paris in April 2017, Le Pen complained that his husband Etienne Cardiles was invited to address a national memorial.

Le Pen said in an online video: “I think this family trait should have been kept away from such a ceremony which would have benefited from more discretion.”

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s National Front (FRANCK PENNANT/AFP/Getty)

In March 2016, the far-right figurehead claimed in a video that “paedophilia found its credentials […] in the exaltation of homosexuality.”

Speaking to Le Figaro In December 2016, he claimed of gay people in politics: “Homosexuals are like salt in soup: if there is not enough it is a little bland, if there is too much it is undrinkable. ”

France 24 reports that Le Pen was ordered to pay 800 euros in fines, along with 5,000 euros in damages to Etienne Cardiles, and 2,000 euros damages to LGBT+ group Mousse.

Prosecutors accused Le Pen of trying to “stir up hatred” and encourage “the banishment of homosexuals.”

Jean-Marie Le Pen still sits as an MEP

The far-right figure sits as an independent Member of the European Parliament, though he was expelled from the National Front in 2015 after falling out with its current leader, his own daughter Marine Le Pen.