France’s privacy agency is investigating whether presidential candidate Eric Zemmour broke the law by sending a text message to “around 10,000” Jewish people on Friday, which was the last day of the election. The National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) said on Monday that it had spoken to the Zemmour campaign about the text message sent to “French people of the Jewish faith,” RFI reported. The text contained a link to a website from Zemmour’s right wing Reconquête (Reconquer) party that spoke about the issue of antisemitism in France, focusing on Islamist terrorism and describing the “scum” that “ruin the lives” of French Jews. It also detailed Zemmour’s election promises to the Jewish community, including being against a French ban on kosher animal slaughter. Related articles: Éric Zemmour acquitted of Holocaust denial charge Two Jewish groups file police complaint over text messages France's Éric Zemmour cites Jewish man's death in election pitch The 28-year-old French Jew advising French presidential hopeful BFMTV quoted a campaign manager of Zemmour who said that a databases broker who mines personal information had provided them with the data used to send the texts. But he said that the list had targeted people who were interested in antisemitism in France and Europe, and that the database bought by the campaign had listed them as “Jewish.” It is illegal under French law to use a database to contact people based on religion for political purposes. Breaking the regulation can results in a formal warning, up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million euros. “The issue will now be whether the selection of a database based on interest in antisemitism – leading to the dissemination of a message explicitly targeting the Jewish community – is akin to political canvassing based on religion,” lawyer Oriana Labruyère told BFMTV . In Sunday’s first round of voting, Zemmour won only about seven percent of the vote. An April 24 runoff vote will see incumbent President Emmanuel Macron face far right opponent Marine Le Pen.
