A Paris court acquitted left-wing politician Gerard Filoche of inciting hatred in a tweet showing Emmanuel Macron wearing a Nazi-style armband with the words “marching towards world chaos”.

The tweet, which he shared last month, depicted the president in front of images of banknotes, the Israeli and US flags, and three Jewish figures: the economist Jacques Attali, telecommunication mogul Patrick Drahi and Jacob Rothschild, the British banker and politician.

“He is an evil man, all of France will soon know this,” was the tweet’s accompanying remark in French.

The tweet led to Mr Filoche’s expulsion from the Socialist Party, traditionally the main left-wing faction in France, and charges of inciting hatred.

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.