French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is standing trial over comments she made five years ago comparing Muslim street prayers to a foreign occupation.
Ms Le Pen, whose National Front party is known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islam views, arrived in court to stand trial on charges of inciting racial hatred in Lyon, where she will face four anti-racism and human rights organisations.
“I have the right, as a political leader, to evoke a crucial issue and it’s even a duty for me to do it,” Ms Le Pen told reporters.
Her popularity on the rise in France, Ms Le Pen faces up to a year in prison and a fine of €45,000. The court’s ruling is expected to be set to a later date.
Despite the potential jail term, political experts say she could emerge from the trial even stronger among many National Front voters.
Ms Le Pen’s litigious comments referred to Muslims praying on the street outside mosques when they are full.
“That actually is the occupation of territory,” she told a crowd of sympathisers in Lyon in 2010.
I have the right, as a political leader,to evoke a crucial issue and it’s even a duty for me to do it
In France, “occupation” is the generic term used to refer to the period of administration by the Nazis of French territory.
In July 2013, Ms Le Pen was stripped of her European Parliament immunity over the comments. She scores high in all popularity polls for regional elections in December. She is hoping to win votes in the context of Europe’s migrant crisis – what she calls a “migratory submersion”.
“I think that acting as a victim as she does is going to be more useful than bad [to her image],” historian Jean Garrigues said. “We can see that this theme of an invasion that could be related to an occupation, it works. It does have a political efficiency.”
Political analyst Thomas Gue-nole said Ms Le Pen’s trial would not be problematic to the majority of National Front voters who share far right or very conservative views.
But Ms Le Pen has been trying in recent years to increase her electorate with people from the left, based on the argument of an opposition to Europe’s economic policy.
“To them, her comments are a big problem... because they are resolutely anti-racist and hostile to any kind of hatred speech,” Mr Guenole said.