In answer to my own headline, I fancy he woud have said quite a lot ...
It is perhaps no secret what I think of the Le Pen dynasty, the Front National and all other racists and fascists.
The unlovely lady you see above is Anne-Sophie Leclère, a former FN municipal election candidate.
She has been sentenced to nine months in jail for publishing an obnoxious montage on her Facebook page that effectively compared France's black justice minister Christiane Taubira to a monkey.
"I am not a delinquent ... I am not a delinquent," this delightful specimen of French womanhood was heard to declare on television after the verdict, delivered in Cayenne, place of origin of Mme Taubira. Mme Leclère was not in court; the arrangements for her detention have yet to be revealed.
So you imagine me jumping for joy at this exemplary judgment, for disgraceful behaviour that had even the wretched FN rushing to distance itself from her?
Not a bit of it. I actually regard it as repugnant in the extreme.
This is a country that finds it possible to show compassion to a former prime minister (Juppé) or president (Chirac) convicted of corruption; a retired British cop who drove home with a skinful and crashed his car, killing various family members and the anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonné.
If each of those escaped with suspended sentences, the same clemency should have been shown to Mme Leclère. Challenge her vile views by all means but don't throw her in jail for having them.
Voltaire never quite said: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." But from what we know, those words fairly represent his thoughts.
Mine, too. the Free the Odious One campaign starts here.
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