No First Amendment in France

Jean-Marie LePen had this to say:

"It's not only the European Union and globalisation we have to free our country of. It's also the lies about its history, lies that are protected by exceptional measures," Le Pen said in comments published in Rivarol's Jan. 7 edition. "In France, at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhumane, although there were some blunders, inevitable in a country of 550,000 sq km."

LePen is a vile little anti-Semitic slug who was close to ruling France. He's also ignorant and doesn't seem particularly bright. That said, this to me was even more chilling:

The Justice Ministry called for a preliminary police inquiry to determine whether Le Pen's comments broke the law.
"He should explain himself before the law," Justice Minister Dominique Perben told LCI television.
France anti-racism laws have made denying the Holocaust a crime, punishable by fines or prison.
Le Pen, who in 1987 dismissed the Holocaust as a "detail" of history, alarmed Europe in 2002 by reaching the second round of France's presidential election on an anti-immigrant and anti-Europe platform.
...French prosecutors have already opened a judicial investigation into comments by Le Pen's number two, Bruno Gollnisch, who questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers in the Holocaust.

Italics Mine. You can be fined or go to prison in France for denying the Holocaust? Think about that. In America you would be ridiculed in the press and shown for the idiot you are, but prison? For speaking your mind and saying what you think? I thought the French were so enlightened.

Hat tip: Chris