European parliament’s legal affairs committee voted overwhelmingly to strip off the immunity given to French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen for her tweets that showed the atrocities of the Middle Easter terrorist group known as Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL). The tweets included graphic images including the beheaded body of the US reporter James Foley. French prosecutors opened an investigation over her tweets in December 2015. The offense that is being considered here is “publishing violent images”; if convicted the offense can attract three years imprisonment and a fine of almost $80,000. As a European Union parliamentarian and leader of the National Front, she had enjoyed the immunity. The committee voted 18-3 in favor of her immunity cancellation. Now the whole European parliament must vote on the issue, which is likely to be held tomorrow.

There is a strong possibility that in this year’s election, the National Front leader, who has vowed to renegotiate French agreement to stay in the Eurozone as well as in the European Union, could win and become the next French President. However, the majority of the polls suggest that she is the likely winner in the first round of French election but will lose in the second round. But if she wins and fails to renegotiate the terms for France then a French exit would be a real possibility.