Bernard Bazinet, mayor of Augignac (Dordogne), has been suspended from his duties for one month by order of the French Interior Minister. The suspension, dated December 31, 2025, was published in the Journal Officiel on Thursday.
The decision follows a comment Bazinet made on Facebook on December 4, under a Libération article about Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, which several countries have threatened to boycott. Bazinet wrote: “Yes to the boycott! France is too y**p to boycott!” — a remark widely condemned as antisemitic.
In an interview with AFP, Bazinet claimed he was reacting emotionally to reports about the situation in Palestine: “It was a stupid reaction. I didn’t realize the term I used had such antisemitic connotations. I thought it was just slang. By the time I tried to delete it, it had already gone viral and was picked up by CNews.”
Bazinet, elected in 2020 under the Socialist Party (PS), was expelled from the party days after the incident. The PS stated it had “immediately expelled the elected official following his antisemitic remarks on social media,” emphasizing that “antisemitism is a vile scourge — no tolerance or justification is acceptable.”
The comment was widely criticized online, including by essayist Céline Pina and National Rally spokesperson Julien Odoul.
On December 22, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez condemned the remarks, stating that Bazinet “no longer has the moral authority necessary to serve in office.”
