“You must be a remarkable person, without ethnic or religious hatred”: the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon took the side of Karim Benzema on Thursday, accused by the Minister of the Interior of being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, this which the player denied. “I don’t know you and I don’t know anything about football,” wrote the rebellious leader on X (formerly Twitter), addressing the Ballon d’Or directly.
Hello Mr Benzema. I don’t know you and I don’t know anything about football. But the government and its friends have chosen to demonize you. They call you “paper French”. With such enemies speaking with such words you must be a remarkable person,…
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) October 19, 2023
“The government and its friends have chosen to demonize you. They call you a ‘paper Frenchman’. With such enemies speaking with such words you must be a remarkable person, without ethnic or religious hatred”, believes Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Darmanin accuses Benzema of being “linked with the Muslim Brotherhood”
Karim Benzema was accused by Gérald Darmanin to be “in notorious links with the Muslim Brotherhood”, an Islamist organization born in Egypt, following the publication on once again of these unjust bombings which spare neither women nor children”.
All our prayers for the inhabitants of Gaza who are once again victims of these unjust bombings which spare no women or children.
— Karim Benzema (@Benzema) October 15, 2023
Many also criticized the soccer star for not expressing compassion for Israelis who were victims of the atrocities and large-scale killings committed by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7. The accusation of “paper French” comes in particular from Les Républicains (LR) MEP Nadine Morano, Wednesday evening on CNews.
Mélenchon refuses to qualify Hamas as a “terrorist” organization
Jean-Luc Mélenchon himself has been under fire sincehe refused to label Hamas a “terrorist” organization. Karim Benzema “never had the slightest relationship” with the Muslim Brotherhood, reacted in a press release Me Hugues Vigier, the footballer’s lawyer, saying he was considering filing a complaint against Gérald Darmanin for defamation or public insult.
On Wednesday, Senator LR Valérie Boyer requested, if the Minister of the Interior’s accusations were proven, the “loss of nationality” for Karim Benzema. Even further to the right, the president of Reconquest! Éric Zemmour estimated on France 2 that Karim Benzema, “he is a Muslim who wants to apply sharia, and sharia provides for jihad, and jihad means killing Dominique Bernard, it means killing Samuel Paty”. “I make a direct connection,” he added.