French Far-Right MEP Defamation Trial over Muslim Brotherhood Accusations Set for September

French far-right MEP Mar­i­on Maréchal will stand tri­al in Sep­tem­ber 2025 for defama­tion after alleg­ing that a Mus­lim school asso­ci­a­tion is linked to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. On 30 June 2025, Le Figaro report­ed that Maréchal had made pub­lic claims link­ing Valeurs et Réus­site to the Broth­er­hood. The case cen­ters on her 2023 social media posts and tele­vised remarks. The arti­cle begins:

French far-right MEP Mar­i­on Maréchal is sched­uled to stand tri­al on Sep­tem­ber 2, 2025, for defama­tion against the asso­ci­a­tion Valeurs et Réus­site, which runs an inde­pen­dent Mus­lim school in Valence. Accord­ing to AFP, cit­ing a source close to the case and judi­cial doc­u­ments, she will answer for remarks made in 2023 on social media. In posts on Tik­Tok and Insta­gram, Maréchal accused the NGO of being linked to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, claim­ing it shares «the same objec­tive» as Al Qae­da and ISIS. Valeurs et Réus­site filed a law­suit in 2024. In Octo­ber of that year, Mar­i­on Maréchal repeat­ed sim­i­lar alle­ga­tions on the CNews tele­vi­sion chan­nel. She was for­mal­ly indict­ed in March. [Trans­lat­ed frm French original.]

Read more: https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/marion-marechal-sera-jugee-pour-diffamation-contre-une-ecole-musulmane-20250630

Key Points

• Mar­i­on Maréchal’s defama­tion tri­al will take place on 2 Sep­tem­ber 2025 before the Valence crim­i­nal court.

• The case involves her claims that the asso­ci­a­tion run­ning a Mus­lim school is linked to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood.

• The asso­ci­a­tion, Valeurs et Réus­site, filed suit after Maréchal’s remarks on social media and tele­vi­sion in 2023.

• A sim­i­lar case against satire mag­a­zine Char­lie Heb­do was dis­missed, with the court cit­ing free debate of ideas.

State Response to Islamism in France

Accord­ing to an inves­ti­ga­tion by French mag­a­zine Char­lie Heb­do, a body of evi­dence sug­gests that Valeurs et Réus­site indeed had insti­tu­tion­al and per­son­al ties to the French Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. Until at least 2019, the school has been affil­i­at­ed with the Nation­al Fed­er­a­tion of Mus­lim Edu­ca­tion (FNEM), the main rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Mus­lim pri­vate edu­ca­tion asso­ci­a­tions in France. The FNEM was found­ed in part­ner­ship with Musul­mans de France, the coun­try’s most promi­nent GMB umbrella.

The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in France has pur­sued a diverse set of strate­gies to expand its ide­o­log­i­cal and oper­a­tional pres­ence, includ­ing embed­ding itself with­in edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions, as seen when pub­lic fund­ing was with­drawn from a promi­nent Mus­lim high school over alleged Broth­er­hood ties. In May 2025, a report was pre­sent­ed to Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron that warned of “entry­ism” by Islamism in France, threat­en­ing nation­al cohe­sion. Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Bruno Retail­leau specif­i­cal­ly warned of “below-the-radar Islamism” attempt­ing to impose sharia law on French soci­ety grad­u­al­ly. In April 2025, Marine Le Pen’s demand­ed to out­law the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in France, posi­tion­ing her far-right Nation­al Ral­ly par­ty as the defend­er of sec­u­lar­ism while ampli­fy­ing anti-Islamist rhetoric ahead of key elections.

Efforts to chal­lenge French sec­u­lar poli­cies, like the hijab ban, have been sup­port­ed by Broth­er­hood-affil­i­at­ed orga­ni­za­tions, exem­pli­fied by the back­ing for female ath­letes con­test­ing these restric­tions. In response, French author­i­ties have imple­ment­ed legal and admin­is­tra­tive coun­ter­mea­sures. At the same time, Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood net­works have mobi­lized coor­di­nat­ed cam­paigns, legal com­plaints, and appeals to human rights bod­ies to con­test what they describe as dis­crim­i­na­to­ry French policies.

Exter­nal References:

• Mus­lim Broth­er­hood’s influ­ence in France: What the con­tro­ver­sial report reveals

• Gov­ern­ment-com­mis­sioned report says Mus­lim Broth­er­hood pos­ing threat to French values

• Macron urges gov­ern­ment action on Mus­lim Broth­er­hood’s influence

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.