Gilles Bourdouleix and Jean-Marie Le Pen #racist theguardian.com

A centrist MP is facing expulsion from his party and legal action by the state after he allegedly said of French Travellers: "Hitler maybe didn't kill enough of them."

Gilles Bourdouleix, MP and mayor of the town of Cholet in the Maine and Loire region of western France, was reported to have made the comments on Sunday during an encounter with a group of Travellers who had parked over 100 caravans in a field owned by the local authority.

According to the local paper Le Courrier de L'Ouest the meeting, in which Bourdouleix told the Travellers they would have to move on, was tense, with some Travellers accusing him of racism and a few making a Nazi salute towards him.

During the exchange, as reported by the newspaper, a man said to Bourdouleix: "You know how to talk better than [the former president Nicolas] Sarkozy." The MP replied that "the law must be implemented".

There was murmuring and Bourdouleix reportedly said in a hushed tone: "Just goes to show that Hitler maybe didn't kill enough of them."

When the MP denied the comments, the paper published a recording on its website. The 53-year-old insisted he had been the victim of a "scandalous montage" and was considering suing.

[...]

Last month, rights groups said they would take legal action against the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen after he told a meeting in Nice that Roma in the city were "rash-inducing" and "smelly".

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