One leader of the French extreme right is convinced that an unflattering selfie is to blame for his poor result in the recent national elections.
To prove that he puts his money where his mouth is, Jean-Marie Le Pen sued the photographer.
In December last year, one day before the regional elections in France took place, Brahim Zaibat took a selfie in the cabin of the plane mid-flight. However, he made sure that Le Pen, who was seated sight in front of Zaibat, also appeared in the shot.
The blessing and the curse of the selfie was that Le Pen was sleeping in a less than dignifying posture, mouth opened and all. Zaibat seized the opportunity and attached a snarky comment to the photo.
"Knockout the [National Front] tomorrow by going to vote," Zaibat wrote (translated) in the caption of the image that went straight on his social media accounts.
Brahim Zaibat, a professional dancer and one of Madonna's ex-boyfriends, gained a wave of approval after posting the (disputable) funny snap. Social media lit up and a surging number of likes, shares and comments started pouring in.
If the National Front had won the next day's elections, Zaibat's selfie would have probably been forgotten, but with a humiliating result in the polls, the leaders of the party started looking for scapegoats.
Le Pen, who founded National Front party back in 1972, led without interruption for almost 40 years. It was in 2015 that he was persuaded to take a step back in favor of his own daughter, who took the reins of the far-right party. Although the castling was meant to show that the party moves towards a more inclusive, moderate way of doing politics, facts proved this to be untrue.
Fueled by the dissatisfaction of his party's results, Le Pen blamed the bad selfie as the main cause for the poor performance of his party.
Le Pen wants to get €50,000 ($55,000, give or take) in damages from Zaibat, who should also make a public apology to the extremist politician.
"[The selfie] harmed his image and was instrumental in the defeat of the party," Le Pen believes, according to reports from French magazine Public.
Le Pen's legal complaint is scheduled for its first hearing on Jan. 22.
As outrageous the French politician's claims are, Zaibat can consider himself lucky. At least he didn't end up in a hospital by taking a selfie with a rattlesnake.
