French Senate votes against legal committee, Genocide bill ballot continues.

With a vote of 86 YES and 187 NO, the French Senate voted down the Laws Commission vote last week against the law criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial. This lifts the first and main hurdle to final Senate passage of the law.

With 263 Senators present, 127 cast votes.

There will now be a series of votes on amendments to the measure, and finally a vote on the main law criminalizing Genocide denial.

The Senate’s Laws Commission approved a motion last Wednesday rejecting the bill as inadmissible by 23 votes for, nine against and eight abstentions.

Discussions continue on the French bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide. 

France recognized the killings as a genocide in 2001, but the new bill would go further, by punishing anyone who denies this with a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).