Alain Terrenoire is such a courteous man that he forbids the slightest manifestation of annoyance, but there, Eric Zemmour exaggerated, and the 80-year-old gentleman raised an eyebrow. Gaullist on the left, elected deputy in 1967 at the age of 25, he is the real author of the so-called “Pleven” law of 1972 against racism, and Eric Zemmour, on three occasions, assured that the old gentleman regretted that his law had been “misguided” by “the judges of the left”. In reality, Alain Terrenoire does not regret anything at all, understands very well that the presidential candidate, condemned three times on the basis of his law, wants to abolish it, and is moved that March 21, International Day for the elimination of racial discrimination and on the eve of the 70e anniversary of his law, Eric Zemmour is still trying to use him.
“He wanted to know why someone on the right, who claimed to be De Gaulle, had been able to lay such a bad law, says Alain Terrenoire. We saw each other for the first time in a café in 2016. Eric Zemmour is then frequently taken to court, was convicted for the first time on February 18, 2011 for “incitement to racial hatred”, and complains that “It costs him dearly” financially. “I was courteous, it’s normal, said the former deputy. He was a journalist at Figaro, it is very honourable. We saw it in the debates on television. Sometimes what he said didn’t displease me 100%. Maybe I was wrong to tell him, anyway. »
The two men exchange emails, Eric Zemmour wants to know more, Alain Terrenoire ends up inviting him to lunch at his place, and explains to him at length the genesis of his famous law. At the beginning of the 1970s, racist incidents multiplied, while the Marchandeau decree-laws against racism of 1939, repealed by Vichy and brought back into force in 1944, were practically inoperative.
In the spring of 1971, France ended up ratifying the 1965 UN Convention against racial discrimination. Jacques Chaban-Delmas was then Prime Minister, the young Terrenoire got on very well with him, and the two men felt that he it’s time to have real anti-racist legislation. Alain Terrenoire has something to hold on to: his grandfather, Francisque Gay, fought before the war in his diary, Dawn, against anti-Semitism, Franco, Salazar, Mussolini and Hitler; his father, Louis Terrenoire, was secretary of the National Council of the Resistance and minister to General de Gaulle.
“He is not in good faith”
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