Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, Parliament revisited antiracism provisions several times to refine and extend them. It was not until 1990, however, that the next major antiracism law arrived in France. The Gayssot law (as it is commonly known) comprised three substantial and new elements. First and most symbolically, it punished those who deny the historical existence of the Holocaust. Although France is not unique in enacting provisions against revisionist history, prominent observers have argued that creating an “official” history is a dubious practice in an open society. Second, it created a new tool for punishing racists. Subject to the discretion of the judges, individuals found guilty of racist crimes can be stripped of certain civil rights – most provocatively the right to run for public office. Third, and least controversially, the law of 1990 mandated an annual report on the struggle against racism and xenophobia. This provision created institutionalized publicity for race policies and opened a yearly window of opportunity for antiracist activists to exploit.

The Gayssot law was passed in a significantly different era from that of the original French legislation. If the proposals for the 1972 law were initially formulated in the postwar years, those for the 1990 law were developed in the context of a rising far right party and of heightened concerns over immigration. By the mid-1980s, most of the French political elite and the public understood that immigrants were not merely temporary workers, but were a permanent part of French society.