Under the nave of the Saint-Eustache church (Paris I), Eddy de Pretto, polo shirt on his shoulders and beard of a few days, settles down at the piano.
On June 17, 2021, the 28-year-old singer finds his audience for the first time in a year and a half.
Like other artists, he was invited to sing at the “Qui va piano” festival.
The artist begins his set with the title “À quoi bon”.
Within the splendid church of the Halles district, he directly apostrophes God and develops by singing the difficulties of reconciling his homosexuality and the Catholic religion.
"I think I'm not ready to obey your Bible
,
" intones Eddy de Pretto, honored with a Victoire de la musique in 2018.
I know what you like, I don't think I've read the right books/But you'll tell me no, it's too much, you're not healthy enough/To join your ranks, you must not have does almost nothing.
The performance was hailed by spectators within the Church.
The day after his performance, Eddy de Pretto broadcasts the video on his social networks.
The reactions are violent.
In the hours following its release, the singer's Instagram and Twitter accounts were overwhelmed with attacks.
The vast majority are tinged with homophobia.
“Do you want to sing sodom in a church?
No worries, wear your balls and do the same
(sic)
in a mosque”;
"What a bastard anyway";
"Fuck your mother", post Internet users on the singer's Instagram account, which relays some flowery extracts on its social networks.
In total, nearly 3,000 insulting messages and death threats targeted the artist in a few days.
“I would sing my words in all the places that welcome me to do so, replies the musician on Instagram.
These homophobes, royalists, extreme right anarchists will never win.
Love always wins.
“If the artist tries to appease the spirits by this message, he files a complaint and an investigation is opened by the National Pole of fight against online hatred (PLNH) of the parquet floor of Paris.
Online harassers unknown to justice
Eight months later, it has just borne fruit.
According to our information, the gendarmes of the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes (OCLCH) - in conjunction with the police stations and local gendarmeries - arrested on Tuesday, Wednesday and this Thursday, 16 people suspected of having insulted and threatened the singer.
These online stalkers, all adults, have been arrested all over France.
To read alsoEddy de Pretto: “Today, it is a political choice to go and take a place at the Bataclan”
As in the context of the Mila affair, named after this young woman who was regularly insulted and threatened on social networks because of her anti-Islamic positions, the OCLCH investigators focused on the most virulent messages addressed to the singer, and in particular those mixing homophobic insults and death threats.
Their authors are mainly men, some of whom are conservative Catholics.
These online harassers are, for many of them, unknown to the justice system.
Some admitted, during their police custody, not having measured the extent of their remarks and having felt protected behind the anonymity of social networks.
