The mayor of Le Havre, Édouard Philippe, will not go to the summer days of Europe Ecology-The Greens, which are held from Thursday in the Norman city, while EELV is entangled in a controversy over the presence by rapper Medina. The former Prime Minister “will welcome a certain number of elected EELV who asked to see him at the town hall, in a republican way and with pleasure”, specifies his entourage.
The presence of Edouard Philippe at the environmental days, for a word of welcome as mayor of the city, had been mentioned for a time. The leaders of EELV have been spreading their differences for several days around the presence of Medina, who must dialogue Thursday with the national secretary of the environmentalist party, Marine Tondelier. Accusations of anti-Semitism against the singer were revived by one of his recent messages on X (ex-Twitter) targeting essayist Rachel Khan.
No ambiguity. I attacked Rachel Khan’s career path. The unsuitable formula, which certainly must have offended people and I apologize for that, was not directed towards his family or towards the victims of the tragedy of the Holocaust.
Rachel Khan treated me a few…
— Medina (@Medinrecords) August 11, 2023
“Slayer of republican secularism”
Several party officials criticized his presence and the mayors of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, and of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, have made it known that they will not take part in these back-to-school days. Édouard Philippe had devoted a passage to the rapper from Le Havre in one of his books published in 2017. He then called him a “destroyer of republican secularism” while adding that he was “probably more complex than we say”.
“He is attached to his city and he wrote a piece that testifies to it with a certain tenderness. His texts play with all the codes of a certain rap: we live in ghettos; after having colonized our parents, France hates us , we, sons of immigrants; and the Republic oppresses us as Muslims”, also wrote the former Prime Minister and president of the Horizons party.
The Minister of Industry Roland Lescure had already made it known that he was giving up going to the EELV days. Several dozen parliamentarians from the majority have asked EELV to give up inviting the rapper, who is also invited to the back-to-school event of La France insoumise.