Manuel Valls was acquitted by a French Court of the charge of racism (Le Monde 2013). The movement against racism had filed a lawsuit against Valls after he had publicly stated that Rroma have an extremely different lifestyle to the French, and had the habit of returning to Romania and Bulgaria. The court justified its decision with the reasoning that Valls’ statements were made in connection with a debate over the public interest and were not racist in the choice of words. The Court thereby ignores the role of intellectual arson and the power of derogatory cultural attribution to the public. A conviction would have been a sign of a more tolerant society, where defamatory statements do not fall under the category of freedom of expression. The court stated: “il n’apparaît pas [que ces propos] excèdent les limites admissibles de la liberté d’expression” [It does not seem that these statements exceed the admissible limits of the freedom of expression] (Libération 2013).
- Libération (2013) Propos sur les Roms: une plainte contre Valls classée sans suite. In: Libération online vom 19.12.2013. http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/2013/12/19/propos-sur-les-roms-la-plainte-du-mrap-contre-valls-classee-sans-suite_967873
- Le Monde (2013) Valls et les Roms: la plainte du MRAP classée sans suite. In: Le Monde online vom 19.12.2013. http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/12/19/valls-et-les-roms-la-plainte-du-mrap-classee-sans-suite_4337736_823448.html