Le Canon Français loses its defamation lawsuit against two LFI deputies, who denounced the presence of “Nazi salutes” in banquets

On September 3 in Tours, the president of the criminal court warned: there was no question of “the courtroom transforming into a political tribunal”. Despite the presence on the defendants' bench of two LFI deputies, and on the civil parties' bench of the co-founders of the French Canon, we stuck to the law. To press law, in this case, and to the question of defamation, which is particularly technical.

The decision was rendered this Thursday, November 12: no, Marie Mesmeur and Mathilde Hignet did not defame the events company when they co-signed and relayed a text denouncing the presence of “Nazi salutes” in its Franchouillard banquets. Banquets which they also described as “a forum for promoting far-right ideology”.

At the hearing, the elected representatives of Ille-et-Vilaine denounced a “gag procedure” brought by the managers of Canon Français, Pierre-Alexandre de Boisse and Géraud de la Tour. But also “the instrumentalization of justice for political purposes”, claiming to have been attacked because they were members of the Insoumis.

Their counsel, Me Raphaël Kempf, had pleaded the “good faith” of his clients, striving to prove that they had a “sufficient factual basis” to be able to reasonably write what they wrote in their column of October 31, 2025, which aimed to cancel a banquet in their department, in Goven. He cited a series of serious press articles which he said reported the presence of Nazi salutes at previous Canon Français banquets.

False, according to Mr. Pierre-Henri Baert, lawyer for the civil parties: “Not a single journalist was able to take a photograph or a film of a Nazi salute! Not a single one!” he insisted. The defense also focused on the political aspect of the case, emphasizing that the Canon Français company is partly owned by conservative billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin. Mr. Kempf returned at length to the political ambitions of the businessman, accusing him of being on an “ideological crusade” via his Pericles project, and of using the French Canon to “propagate far-right ideas”.

On the French Canon side, we do not make much of this decision to acquit. “We have already won,” slips Me Baert to Le Figaro. “The deputies were not able to provide proof of what they were saying, namely that Nazi salutes are committed at the banquets of the French Canon, which is factually false.” The lawyer brushes aside the accusations of a political trial specifically targeting rebellious elected officials: “We only targeted comments that exceeded the limits, and not those that fall under freedom of expression.”

The Tours criminal court also canceled the procedure targeting a journalist from ICI Touraine, also attacked for defamation by the Canon Français for an article published in October 2025, and whose trial was held just before that of Marie Mesmeur and Mathilde Hignet.