Marine Tondelier, the Green party candidate for France's presidential election, has called for a law that would "ban lying in politics, on pain of ineligibility." She announced the proposal in a blog post on Friday, September 4.
Tondelier, who leads the French Greens (Les Écologistes), said France needed "a solid legislative arsenal to protect the quality of public debate," describing it as a law that would clearly punish politicians who lie.
What the proposal would target
Tondelier said her proposal was aimed at "deliberate and factual lies." She said freedom of expression had never meant the freedom to say anything and to knowingly deceive.
She said the person making a false statement would need to be clearly aware of its falseness, or at least unable to claim ignorance of it, and would need to have intended to deceive.
The case that inspired her
Tondelier pointed to comments made by Horizons senator Vincent Louault, who admitted during an episode of the France 2 programme "Complément d'Enquête," broadcast Thursday evening, that he had "made up fake news" during recent debates over the pesticide acetamiprid. Louault defended himself by saying people understand simple messages.
Tondelier said her proposed law would not punish honest mistakes or vague statements. She said politicians would not be sanctioned if, like many in politics, they had no idea of the price of a baguette or a pain au chocolat, calling that regrettable but not something that should be punished, except at the ballot box.
She added that politicians also would not be sanctioned for changing their minds, or for trying to make voters forget, as a presidential candidate, that they had previously served as prime minister or as a minister in earlier governments. She called that cowardly and inconsistent, but again said it should only be punished at the ballot box, in an apparent jab at candidates Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal, both former prime ministers.
A model from Wales
Tondelier said she was drawing inspiration from Wales, where the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd, has adopted legislation banning candidates from lying during legislative election campaigns. The law will not take effect before 2030 and includes a system for removing elected officials from office.
Tondelier said that around the world, the right and the far right knowingly use disinformation to advance their cause.
