Debate, debate, there will always be something left! Voltaire would not have missed the opportunity to comment on the « Benzema affair ». To mock this LR senator ready to strip a Frenchman of his nationality and… his Ballon d’Or. To ridicule this LR MEP calling the child from Bron who became a football star a « paper Frenchman ». Or to mock the fury of this lawyer, accusing the famous center-forward with a divisive personality of « collaboration ». Isn’t everything excessive insignificant?
However, in a context that has become unstable after the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel, the blockade of Gaza, and the Islamist assassination of Dominique Bernard, other signals are more significant. The Minister of Interior is right to be alarmed about this « atmospheric jihadism » that undermines French society, to criticize the « partial prayers » and the heavy silences of the former number 10 of the French national team. But can he accuse this icon of the suburbs of having « notorious links with the Muslim Brotherhood » without providing tangible evidence? It seems that freedom of expression is now under tight control.
At the moment when the President once again warns of the « risk of division » in France, this unnecessary controversy allows Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has been discredited for his defense of Hamas, to easily play the victim by supporting a comrade in « demonization ». And Eric Zemmour mixes amalgamation with insinuation in order to further fuel anger and feed anxieties. Complaints for public insult and defamation are flying, comments without reflection or caution are abundant. Manipulate, polarize, lie, slander, unfortunately something remains – an additional tension in a country already on the brink of hysteria.
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