Jean-Luc Mélenchon sent his support this afternoon on Twitter (renamed the week by the right and the far right for having expressed solidarity with the inhabitants of Gaza threatened by the offensive of the Israeli army. “I don’t know you and I don’t know anything about football. But the government and its friends have chosen to demonize you. denounced the rebellious leader. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s reaction comes while he himself is in the grip of a controversy in the same context. Indeed, the leader of La France insoumise and his party refused to qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization after the attack perpetrated in Israel on October 7, attracting the wrath of part of public opinion, and creating deep divisions within the Nupes. Sincere compassion or political strategy? Probably a bit of both.
It all started with a tweet on Sunday in which Karim Benzema addressed his prayers to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, “victims once again of these unjust bombings which spare neither women nor children.” It was the player’s first public reaction since the Hamas attack.
Karim Benzema then found himself propelled into the paranoid tumult of the right and the far right which increased the violent and even xenophobic attacks against the football star. It was the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who opened fire by evoking on CNews alleged “notorious links” of the player with the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist movement, considered terrorist by several countries… including Saudi Arabia where the player now lives.
Accusations and anathemas have rocketed against the winner of the 2022 Ballon d’Or. Senator LR Valérie Boyer wanted this trophy to be taken away from him and, while at it, asked for his “lapse” of French nationality, in a press release published on Facebook. Benzema’s failure to speak out on the subject of deaths in Israel as well as the attack which cost the life of Dominique Bernard, a professor at a college in Arras, on Friday also prompted MEP Nadine Morano to call him a “French on paper” on CNews. In the process, Eric Zemmour went so far as to make, on France 2, a “direct link” between Lhe opinions of Karim Benzema and the assassin of the French teacher. The RN deputy Julien Odoul, for his part, whistled on CNews that he was doing “part of those French people who have the identity card in their left pocket and the little Muslim Brotherhood manual in their right pocket.”
The player has since strongly denied these allegations, and his lawyer has announced an upcoming filing of a complaint against Gérald Darmanin. “It’s incredible that the first police officer in France can make this kind of statement without verification. It is unacceptable !” protested his advisor, Hugues Vigier, on RMC. Contacted by Released, the lawyer also announced an upcoming complaint against Eric Zemmour.