“I am very sorry that this was misinterpreted, decontextualized. At no time, of course, did I want to incite violence or hatred”, defended Izïa to our colleagues from West France, Monday. A mea culpa sufficient to extinguish the controversy aroused by the Emmanuel Macron lynching scenario that she imagined on stage Thursday? A priori yes. His concert, scheduled for July 13 in Marcq-en-Barœul (North) has been canceled but, for the moment, no other date is in question.
The organizers of the Francofolies de La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) have confirmed that it will occur this Wednesday, as planned. The singer, one of the most scheduled summer festivals this year, will then be on the bill at the Escales du Cargo in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône), on July 21, at the Brive Festival (Corrèze) on July 22 or the Colmar Wine Fair (Haut-Rhin), on August 3. In all, a dozen dates are on his agenda between now and September 15.
“The most annoyed in history is her”
“Although she is a passionate person, she is nonetheless a reasonable person”, advances to 20 minutes journalist and French song specialist Bertrand Dicale. “The most annoyed in history is her, not the President of the Republic”, he continues, believing that “she does not risk much” from a judicial point of view for her polemical tirade.
Thursday, during a concert in Beaulieu-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes), she had lent masochistic inclinations to Emmanuel Macron. “I know him, what a naughty one [sic]. He said to himself: “There, what would be good, I think that what the people want, what the people want, is that they hang me 20 m from the ground like a giant human piñata” , and that we are all here with huge bats with nails on the end like in [Orange mécanique] “. She then described the beating: “In a bengal fire of joy, of living flesh and blood, we would put him on the ground, but gently you see…”
The Nice prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “public provocation to commit a crime or misdemeanor” and this offense may be punished by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. The jurist Nicolas Hervieu however affirmed at BFMTV that Izïa being an artist, “this is part of the show, where freedom of expression is protected”.
Not to be “above all not taken at face value”
“It remains a fantasy story, a shared moment of a free, artistic spirit. It’s not headed in any direction,” the singer explained to West Franceenjoining not “above all not to take at face value” what she envisaged as “an improvised and surrealist binder between two titles which speaks of everything and nothing”.
For Bertrand Dicale, “the poetic, extreme, completely delirious form”, of Izïa’s remarks, “reflects a part of society”. And to allude to a controversy of the month of February: “From the moment when a deputy poses with his foot on a ball representing the head of a minister [Olivier Dussopt] and where a number of Members say that all of this is completely banal, that it is a French tradition to hang or burn a mannequin bearing the image of the President of the Republic, it is not surprising that in the society or on a stage something like this happens. What is more surprising is that it comes from Izïa. »
The musical expert, who this summer chronicles love songs on Franceinfo, underlines that it is rare for a singer or singer who is so popular with the public to make such comments. “There, we are facing an artist participating in summer festivals which are partly financed by town halls, urban communities, departments. We are in a dissonance that we will take more as a symptom of the delirious tension that France is currently experiencing than as something else. »
“A society of postures”
“The coming to Marcq-en-Barœul of this artist, for a public, free and family concert would be in contradiction with the values of gathering which prevail during our National Day”, had declared Sunday the mayor of the city to The voice of the North. “I do not believe that the Marcquois want to legitimize such an offense,” tweeted Renaissance MP Violette Spillebout.
Support for Izïa was also heard. “It’s funny that, there, nobody wants to separate the wife from the artist”, had posted on Twitter the ecologist deputy Sandrine Rousseau. This Monday, journalist Olivier Lamm wrote in a post for Release “Our era, not supporting the slightest expression of sedition coming from the camp opposite, while constantly fantasizing about an insurrection that would go in its direction, no longer has its eyes in front of the holes to no longer tolerate, or even embrace these cathartic conflagrations are all that is most normal and legitimate, the raison d’être of which is precisely to be excessive, unjust, insurrectionary. They are culture, and oxygen, which we would risk enormously to deprive ourselves of. »
“It is not unexpected that in the face of such remarks some stiffen up and that others howl at fascism by saying: “We want to silence the artists!”, notes Bertrand Dicale. We are in a society with a lot of postures. »