French MP Bourdouleix leaves party after criticism for alleged statement about Hitler and Travellers

Gilles Bourdouleix, the French MP who is also mayor of the town of Cholet, has now resigned his membership in his political party. Bourdouleix left the center-right UDI (Union of Democrats and Independents) after being criticized for statements he is alleged to have recently made about Travellers.

Bourdouleix is alleged to have said that Hitler didn’t kill enough Travellers. Human rights organizations in France protested the remark and French Interior Minister Samuel Valls also called it unacceptable.

French daily Le Courrier de l’Ouest reported that Bourdouleix made the remark when accompanying four municipal police officers to eject Travellers from a campsite. The Travellers greeted him by giving the Nazi salute and charging him with racism, to which he is alleged to have declared "Maybe Hitler didn’t kill enough of them".  

Bourdouleix (age 53) has denied this version of events and insists that he responded to the provocative Nazi salutes by saying "if I were really Hitler, they’d be dead". He has promised to sue the daily for "damaging his reputation, defamation, and libel".

Human rights activists, on the other hand, have already filed criminal charges against the mayor for discrimination and inciting racial intolerance. Bourdouleix is also alleged to have cursed at the Travellers, who arrived in town with 150 caravans, calling them murderers, rowdies and thieves.

Bourdouleix resigned his membership in the UDI party after its leadership began meeting on how to exclude him. He is known for proceeding harshly against illegal Traveller campsites. Several weeks ago the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, found himself in a similar situation when he suggested developing a handbook on how to intervene against Travellers.

The question of Travellers has been an enormous problem in France for years. Every town with more than 5 000 inhabitants is obligated to ensure space for Traveller campsites on its territory.