France: Call for the "elimination" of lawyers on far-right website
In France, on a far-right online portal, a call was made public to eliminate approximately one hundred lawyers, who in the second round of the parliamentary election on Sunday had published an appeal against the right-wing party Rassemblement National (RN). "We are publishing a list of lawyers to be eliminated", it read in an article published on the website "Réseau libre - le réseau des patriotes" (Free Network - The Network of Patriots).
The article contained the signatories' names of the Tuesday-published call against the RN. The anonymous authors wrote further, the lawyers should be "sent to a trench or a stadium" and added: "These lawyers declare that they will not respect the judgment in the event of an RN victory in the election."
The lawyers' call against the RN was published on Tuesday on the website of the magazine "Marianne" - under the title "Lawyers, we form the legal brigade against the Rassemblement National". In it, it is stated: "Let us face the danger that the RN and its allies pose for our institutions (...) let us pledge to defend the law, our constitution, and the European Convention on Human Rights."
In response to the death threat against the signatories, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti reacted angrily: "Whoever wants to destroy our freedoms always goes after the lawyers first", Dupond-Moretti wrote on X. The Paris Bar Association filed a complaint. The democracy is "more threatened than ever" in the face of the distribution of lists with "eliminable" lawyers, declared its chairman, Pierre Hoffman, on X.
On Sunday in France, the decisive round of the election to the National Assembly takes place. The RN is leading in the polls, but the distribution of seats is difficult to predict. Over 200 candidates have withdrawn from three-cornered races to reduce the chances of the respective RN candidate in their constituency. Since 76 candidates have already made it through in the first round, voting will only take place in 501 of the 577 constituencies.
The call to eliminate approximately one hundred lawyers was made on a far-right online portal in France, with the article stating, "We are publishing a list of lawyers to be eliminated," on the website "Réseau libre - le réseau des patriotes." This threat was strongly condemned by the Justice Minister and the Paris Bar Association, with the latter stating that democracy is "more threatened than ever" due to the distribution of such lists.
In response to the call, several lawyers have expressed their support for defending the law and upholding the European Convention on Human Rights, publishing their stand against the Rassemblement National on numerous websites, including that of the magazine "Marianne."
Despite the threats to their safety, many lawyers remain determined to uphold the rule of law, recognizing that elimination is not an option under any existing law or democratic principle in France or any other democratic nation.
