France - 
Article published the Sunday 19 February 2012 - Latest update : Sunday 19 February 2012

Government denies Le Pen's claims over halal meat

Marine Le Pen at her presidential convention in Lille
Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

By RFI

The French food ministry has denied claims by the leader of the extreme right National Front party, Marine Le Pen, that all meat distributed in the Parisian region is ‘halal’ – slaughtered according to Islamic law.

 

A spokesman for the ministry said a law in place since the beginning of the year states that halal meat can only by provided by suppliers on demand and not systematically.

“If abattoirs are near a muslim or a jewish community then they can supply that community and therefore they must work in accordance with islamic or kosher customs,” he said.

On Saturday, Le Pen claimed all meat in the Parisian region was without exception halal and said she was going to take some of the most well-known supermarket chains to court over charges they were misleading consumers.

“The situation is a real cover-up,” she told a meeting in Lille. “The government has known about this situation for a month.” She added she had proof to back up her claim.

But Dominque Langlois, president of the association which represents meat suppliers in France denounced Le Pen’s claims as a “political move”

“ To suggest that all commercial meat in Paris or the Paris region is halal is completely wrong and does not reflect the truth,” he said in an interview on France Inter radio.

 

tags: France - Jewish - Marine Le Pen - Meat - Muslim
Related articles
Comments
React to this article
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters (without spaces) shown in the image.
Close