In December 2010, Marine Le Pen, then a presidential candidate for France’s hard-right Front National said this:

“For those who want to talk a lot about World War II, if it’s about occupation, then we could also talk about (Muslim prayers in the streets),” she said. “There may not be any tanks or soldiers, but it is nevertheless an occupation.”

Hardly the most accurate or tasteful of comparisons, but the decision by the French state to prosecute her for ‘hate speech’ is a reminder that free speech is most definitively not one of those “European values” we are always hearing so much about. Up to now however the Javerts on Le Pen’s trail have been frustrated by the immunity from prosecution she gains from her membership of the European Parliament. But not, it seems, for much longer.

UPI reports:

Swedish Member of European Parliament Cecilia Wikstrom confirmed to broadcaster France 24 Saturday the EP’s Legal Affairs Committee last week voted secretly to strip Le Pen of immunity from prosecution in France as an elected MEP. Wikstrom, a member of the Legal Affairs Committee, told France 24 the vote to remove Le Pen’s immunity was nearly unanimous.

Secretly?

This committee evidently cares about as much about transparency as it does about free speech. Given the nature of the parliament of which it is a part, that’s no surprise, but still….

Next step is a full vote in parliament on this question. That, at least, will (I assume) be in public.