29/09/2023, 12:35 SANCHEZ v. FRANCE - 45581/15 (Judgment : No Article 10 - Freedom of expression-{general} : Grand Chamber) [2023] ECHR 418 (1… 173. The Court further observes that the group constituted by Muslims is also associated, unequivocally in view of the way the comments are formulated, with objectively insulting and hurtful language. This is the case of the references, after speaking of the transformation of “Nimes into Algiers”, to “kebab shops”, to the “mosque”, or to “dealers and prostitutes [who] reign supreme”, and it can be seen from other passages, namely “more drug dealing”, “riffraff sell drugs all day long”, “stones get thrown at cars belonging to ‘white people’” (see paragraphs 15 and 16 above). In the Court’s view, the association is even more obvious where mention is made of “drug trafficking run by the muslims” (emphasis added; see paragraph 16 above); a most revealing choice of words, it accentuates the intended assimilation between a group - taken as a whole on account of its religion - and criminality. 174. As regards the comments by L.R., the applicant argued before the Court that they had not exceeded the permissible limits of freedom of expression in the field of political speech, adding that the impugned remarks had reflected his party’s political manifesto, which had never been banned (see paragraphs 89 and 95 above). 175. The Court acknowledges that those comments were made in a very specific context, since they were made by a citizen who, in the runup to an election and on the Facebook “wall” of the candidate whose ideas he supported and for whom he was actually working as campaign assistant (see paragraph 21 above), was complaining about the local situation in terms from which the applicant did not distance himself (see paragraphs 23 and 95 above). Moreover, the Court accepts that the comments reflected a wish to complain of certain local difficulties, or even a degree of social distress that might call for a political response, in particular on account of criminal acts allegedly committed against a section of the population. Nor does it contest the fact that regard must be had to the specificities of the style of communication on certain online portals, where comments are commonly expressed, as in the present case, in conversational language or indeed in a colloquial or vulgar register (see Magyar Tartalomszolgáltatók Egyesülete and Index.hu Zrt, cited above, § 77). 176. It must nevertheless be said that, in an election context, the impact of racist and xenophobic discourse becomes greater and more harmful, as the Court has already pointed out (see paragraph 153 above). That is particularly true in the present circumstances where the political and social climate was troubled, especially at the local level with “clear tensions within the population, which were evident in particular from the comments at issue, but also between the protagonists”, namely the applicant and F.P., who was his political opponent, as the Chamber https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2023/418.html 68/100