French presidential candidate confirms support to Genocide bill

PanARMENIAN.Net - French presidential candidate Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party has confirmed his support to the bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide.

In his interview with the French Marianne weekly, Hollande said he is ready to vote for the bill any time.

When asked to clarify his position, Hollande said: “As to recognition of the Armenian Genocide, I do not tend to base on the number of people sharing the same origin and history.

The Armenian Cause has been backed by the French socialists since the times of Jean Jaures, and Armenians arriving in France were mostly supported by left-wing municipalities. Francois Mitterand backed the Armenian Genocide recognition, and the law was adopted when Lionel Jospin was Prime Minister of France.

The law should have been supplemented by introduction of criminalization for denial of the Armenian Genocide. While opposing it in 2006, the right-wing introduced the bill now; the timing was not the best, I believe. However, I have voted for its text, and I will vote for it again.”

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial with 127 votes for and 86 against. If signed into law by President, the bill will impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Two separate groups of French politicians who oppose the legislation - from both the Senate and the lower house - said they had formally requested the constitutional council examine the law. The groups said they each had gathered more than the minimum 60 signatures required to ask the council to test the law's constitutionality. The council is obliged to deliver its judgment within a month, but this can be reduced to eight days if the government deems the matter urgent.