A statement that has caused a lot of ink to flow. On the evening of Tuesday, October 10, invited on the set of the show L'Heure des Pros 2 on CNews, the French singer of Algerian Jewish origin Enrico Macias gave his opinion on the position of the far left on the Hamas attacks.
While Pascal Praud's guests returned to the terrible massacres in the kibbutzim where entire families and babies were murdered in their homes and denounced these horrors, Enrico Macias castigated La France Insoumise. "When I hear the far left discarding this horror, you force me to say what I didn't want to say: They must be taken down. Of course politically, but maybe even physically," he said.
Read alsoHamas attacks: undermined by the words of the Insoumis, the Nupes is hanging by a thread
While the singer immediately admits to having exaggerated by making such remarks, this call for violence shocked presenter Pascal Praud: "Let's not say that. I am withdrawing this sentence that you did not think of. We can not go on this type of injunctions, "he replied, before recalling that "La France insoumise is not responsible for the crimes", to which Enrico Macias retorted that they were "accomplices".
'A call to murder'
As a reminder, while almost all French political parties and almost the entire international community condemned these attacks by Hamas against the Israeli people, the Insoumises preferred to emphasize that "the armed offensive of Palestinian forces led by Hamas comes in a context of intensification of the Israeli occupation policy in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem". Since then, La France Insoumise has put water in its wine by talking about "war crimes" but without ever calling Hamas a terrorist organization.
Tonight, on CNEWS, Enrico Macias calls for the "physical slaughter" of the rebels. It is a call to murder against us.
This evening, I am going to refer the matter to the @Arcom_fr and the public prosecutor.
We will not let anything pass us by and will never look down. pic.twitter.com/ZSBQ8mOL3O
— Thomas Portes (@Portes_Thomas) October 10, 2023
Following these remarks, the LFI MP for Seine-Saint-Denis Thomas Portes denounced on X (formerly Twitter) a "call for murder" and announced that he had referred the matter to Arcom and the public prosecutor. "These remarks ... endanger the lives of some members of La France insoumise, "says the railway worker in his letter addressed to the prosecutor of Paris. The head of digital campaigns of La France insoumise Bastien Parisot announced on X that "if an unsubmissive activist were to be attacked or threatened in the coming days, Enrico Macias would bear direct responsibility."
"By dint of repeating lies about LFI from morning to night, people we love end up believing them and calling for murder. I don't recognize Enrico Macias in this statement," Jean-Luc Mélenchon said on X.
Invited on the set of franceinfo this Wednesday morning, Manuel Bompard denounced a "media machine that is set up to try to disqualify the positions of La France insoumise", before declaring that it is not the positions of LFI that endanger them but "the interpretation and slander" that "the political class, our political opponents," are trying to spread.