French politician acquitted after tweeting an image of Emmanuel Macron wearing a Nazi-style armband

He said he had retweeted the image by mistake and had not initially noticed the Israeli flag and its antisemitic connotations.

He added that he deleted the message within an hour of being alerted by his son.

A court ruled on Wednesday that “although the fact Gerard Filoche sent out that montage is particularly shocking and distressing, the context in which he sent it out shows he did not intend to incite hatred or violence.”

Mr Filoche, who was a leading figure of the Socialist Party’s left-wing branch, said after the verdict: “I’ve been acquitted. This horrendous trial was completely unjustified.”

The message he tweeted was first issued by far-right group Equality and Reconcialiation, which regularly tweets antisemitic messages and is close to antisemitic comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala.

The group’s leader, Alain Soral, was also acquitted for sending out the same image. The prosecution appealed that ruling and a second trial against Mr Soral is scheduled for next year.