French Budget Minister dismisses Genocide bill adoption by June

PanARMENIAN.Net - French Budget Minister Valérie Pécresse announced adoption of a new bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial almost impossible by next parliamentary elections scheduled for June.

She further noted that government will be working on a new text of the bill that will consider observations by the country’s Constitutional Council, Wall Street Journal reported.

The French Constitutional Council ruled the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial adopted earlier by the Senate of France as unconstitutional. The Council justified it by the fact that the law “contradicts Article 33 of the Constitution of France and the freedom of speech”.

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 the President, the bill would 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.

Turkey reacted furiously when the Senate approved the law. Ankara halted political and military cooperation with France and was threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties if the law took effect.