Americans traveling to Europe often get the advice to “not be loud” in public. It makes you stand out as a tourist, and by extension, a mark for pickpockets. But don’t think you can exercise freedom of speech like we do here in the States, either. A European writer just learned that lesson when a Swiss court threw him in prison for 60 days for his speech.

His crime? Two years ago he left comments on a Facebook video calling a woman reporter, Catherine Macherel, a “fat lesbian.” So on Monday, Swiss-French writer Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral, found out that he would be spending 60 days in the slammer for that comment. The court also fined him thousands in Swiss francs as well.

Apparently in Switzerland you can’t critically call out a member of the LGBTQ/Whatever community. That can bring charges of defamation, discrimination, and incitement of hatred.

Gay activists did a happy dance, of course. Murial Waeger, leaders of a lesbian activist group, said:

This court decision is an important moment for justice and rights of LGBTQI people in Switzerland. The conviction of Alain [Bonnet] is a strong signal that homophobia hatred cannot be tolerated in our society.

If European nations are going to toss people in the clink for calling others rude names on the internet, then a good chunk of X/Twitter users would go to prison.

Oh, wait. That only applies to the those who offend designated victim groups. Never mind.

Religious Speech Stifled in Finland, Too

Last year I wrote about Päivi Räsänen, a Finnish woman who had the audacity to quote a Bible verse on Twitter in response to a 2019 Pride event. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church had partnered with the “Pride 2019” event, and Räsänen, the wife of a traditional Lutheran pastor, tweeted images of Bible verses that condemn homosexual activity. Activists complained, and Finnish prosecutors responded by putting Räsänen on trial for “hate crimes.”

What you should know about Päivi Räsänen is that she’s no rando internet troll. Along with being a wife and grandmother, she’s also a physician, former Finnish interior minister, and a Member of Parliament.

Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0.

Eventually Räsänen was acquitted in a unanimous decision. But the state prosecutor wouldn’t give up, and on August 29, 2023, a new trial for Räsänen’s free speech began anew. As of this writing, the trial is continuing, with Päivi Räsänen’s freedom of religious speech hanging in the balance.

How sad that Finland, the once-fierce little nation that held the Soviet Russians at bay for a time in the 1939-40 Winter War is capitulating to the whims of malcontent gay activists.

European Speech is at Risk

Alain Soral and Päivi Räsänen aren’t the only Europeans to be stung by anti-speech proponents. It’s spreading throughout the continent.

Writer David Harnsanyi, author of Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent, notes that 20 nations of the European Union have so-called “insult laws,” which allow prosecution of journalists for defamation. He writes:

Free speech in Europe is contingent on the vagaries, conditions, and restrictions connected to concerns over ‘national security,’ ‘territorial disorder,’ ‘crime,’ and protections of ‘health or morals’ or the state — which are all flexible notions that empower the government to impose arbitrary limits on expression as long as the majority of the European Union approves.

In fact, in six EU member states defaming a public official is more egregious than insulting a private citizen. That’s the opposite of the US, where it’s nigh-impossible for politicians and celebrities to legally silence the speech of critics. And that’s as it should be — the First Amendment was designed to allow citizens to criticize their government.

But Let’s Give a Shout Out to Britain

No lover of free expression here in the US could honestly claim that the United Kingdom has speech as free as ours. But let’s give praise where praise is due.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a speech recently in which he criticized virtue signaling on gay and trans controversies. He told members of his Conservative Party:

Your values and your priorities should be expressed in everything the public sector does. Too often, it is not. In too many parts of our permanent state, virtue signaling has replaced common sense.

He continued by calling out the ridiculousness of trans activists:

It shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships, patients should know when hospitals are talking about men or women.

And we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t, a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That’s just common sense.

Sunak is absolutely correct. And he can say these things because he’s the British Prime Minister. But the UK does have “hate speech” laws, although new guidance is trying to prioritize Britain’s official free expression.

Let the European Union, and even the UK, be a warning to those of us in the US. Cherish your freedom of expression and speech, and don’t ever take it for granted. Meanwhile, our cousins on the other side of the Pond are losing theirs for the sake of cultural progressivism.

Featured image: “Heerbrugg Tower” (Swiss prison) by Kecko is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped.