Mr Houellebecq was indicted on Tuesday by an investigating judge in Nanterre, in the Paris region, for complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence against a group of people on account of their origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, the French newspaper Le Monde reported.
The case dates back to an interview published on 20 November 2022 in Front Populaire, a magazine founded by the philosopher Michel Onfray. In the interview, Mr Houellebecq spoke about Muslims and the possibility of acts of violence in France, saying among other things that some of them should leave, and describing the so-called great replacement as a fact rather than a theory, according to reports of the case.
The remarks caused fierce controversy at the time. Complaints were filed by the Union of Mosques of France and the Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples, known as MRAP. The rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, also filed a complaint but later withdrew it after meeting the writer in January 2023.
Mr Houellebecq disputes the charge. His lawyers argue that the remarks contain no incitement to violence, not even implicitly, and therefore fall within the bounds of freedom of opinion and expression. He published a book in May 2023, titled Quelques mois dans ma vie, in which he corrected some of the remarks he had made, describing them as clumsy, in order to clarify his thinking.
If convicted, the writer faces up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. The charge of complicity in incitement is one of the most serious in French hate-speech law, and cases of this kind against prominent authors are rare.
Mr Houellebecq, 70, is one of France’s best-known living novelists, the author of Atomised and Platform, and a winner of the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize. He has long been a controversial figure, and his books and public statements have repeatedly divided French opinion.
This is not the first time his remarks about Islam have brought him before the courts. In 2002 he was tried, and acquitted, after calling Islam the stupidest religion in an interview about his novel Platform. The court then ruled that while he had expressed hostility towards Islam as a religion, he had not expressed hatred towards Muslims or encouraged others to act against them. The new case, which concerns remarks made two decades later, will test whether French courts draw the same line today.
