Jean-Luc Addor (born 22 April 1964) is a Swiss-Italian lawyer and politician of the Democratic Union of the Centre (UDC) elected to the National Council in 2015 from canton of Valais. He is known for his critical stance on Islam. He was convicted for racism and incitement to violence in 2017.

Early life and education

Jean-Luc Addor was born in 1964

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

with roots to

Savièse Savièse is a municipality in the district of Sion in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Savièse is first mentioned in 1200 as ''Saviesi''. In 1224 it was mentioned as ''Savisia''. The municipality was formerly known by its German ...

, in the canton of Valais, and Sainte-Croix, in the canton of Vaud. He holds Swiss and Italian citizenship. He studied for his law degree at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

where he finished in 1986 and was called to bar in 1991. He began his judicial career as a clerk at the Court of Entremont before being appointed investigative judge for central Valais in 1992.

Political career

His political career began in 2005, when he was elected to the Valais Grand Council and was re-elected in 2009 and 2013. He served as the head of UDC group in the Grand Council. He became a member of the Municipal Council of Savièse in 2009 and served concurrently as Grand Council member until 2015 when he left both councils following his election to the National Council. In 2015 he was part of an initiative to launch Pegida France alongside

Pierre Cassen Pierre Cassen (born 24 January 1953) is a French writer and the founder of the anti-Islam news portal Riposte Laïque. Biography Cassen is described as an old Trotskyist and former member of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), and was a ...

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and Melanie Dittmer of the German Pegida. At the National Council, he was appointed to the Political Institution Commission (CIP) in his first term and appointed to Security Policy Commission after his re-election in 2019. His legislative interest focuses on immigration and army. In 2017, he voted to ban use of

niqab A niqāb, niqab, or niqaab (; ), also known as a ruband () or rubandah (), is a long garment worn by some Muslim women in order to cover their entire body and face, excluding their eyes. It is an interpretation in Islam of the concept of ...

(full face covering) worn by Muslim women. Same year, he supported an immigration law seeking to introduce stringent conditions for third generation immigrants especially those with Muslim backgrounds to obtain Swiss citizenship. He was a member of referendum committee that opposed gay marriage in 2021. He also opposed the

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certificate legislation that year. He is the president of ProTell, a gun-rights advocacy group.

Racism conviction

After a shooting attack in front of a mosque in

Saint-Gall Gall (; 550 645) according to hagiographic tradition was a disciple and one of the traditional twelve companions of Columbanus on his mission from Ireland to the continent. However, he may have originally come from the border region betwe ...

in 2014, Addor wrote on his Facebook and Twitter handles “On en redemande!” (let’s have more). He was charged with incitement to violence by the state and defended his comment as a form of irony. He was convicted of racial discrimination and incitement to violence in 2017. His appeal against the judgement of the lower court failed as the highest court affirmed his conviction with a fine of $19,600.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Addor, Jean-Luc 1964 births Living people 21st-century Swiss lawyers Pegida activists Swiss critics of Islam Swiss People's Party politicians Swiss-Italian people University of Lausanne alumni Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2015–2019 Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2019–2023 Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2023–2027