Where we learn that one day Elie Semoun and Blanche Gardin were friends. In an interview he gave to the Journal du Dimanche, whose editorial team is now headed by the far-right journalist Geoffroy Lejeune, comedian Elie Semoun explained why he had distanced himself from Blanche Gardin . “These people think they're doing humor, but in reality, they're playing politics. I have respect for Blanche, with whom I was friends, but she took a path that I don't like“, he said, invited to react to the comedian's comments during a show in support of Gaza, in which she said: “my name is Blanche and since October 7, I have been anti-Semitic.»
For Elie Semoun, comedians should not play politics.“It’s the same advice that I gave to Dieudonné: mixing humor, spectacle and politics is never a good idea. Being an artist is the most beautiful job in the world, and wanting to introduce political ideas, especially if they are doubtful, like those mentioned by Blanche and her friend, is to waste your art.“, he estimated. The “friend” in question whom he does not name is none other than the Northerner Aymeric Lompret.
Elie Semoun was thus questioned on a scene shared by Blanche Gardin and Aymeric Lompret, at the beginning of July and that he had made him jump. The Gardin Lompret duo participated in the “Voices for Gaza” evening, with around thirty other artists such as Angèle or Zaho de Sagazan. Together, they denounced how those who are moved by the situation in Gaza can quickly be judged as anti-Semites, during an ironic sequence. On stage Blanche Gardin read the messages she had received in response “to a call to demonstrate for the ceasefire”: “It was when I started to see all the comments which said that I was anti-Semitic, that I had better go and tell about my sodomy on stage, my death threats (…). At first it was shocking but then I realized it was for my own good if people said that. she denounced with her usual second degree.
In Elie Semoun's opinion, would Blanche Gardin have done better not to react? “The common denominator in everything that is happening right now is fear. Why don't the majority of Muslims demonstrate to denounce radical Islamism? Because they are afraid. Why do I weigh my words? Why do I rarely give interviews on these subjects? Because I'm afraid”he argued.
“Take Guillaume Meurice for example”
Asked about freedom of expression, Elie Semoun confided that he had his limits. “Take for example the journalist from France Inter, Guillaume Meurice.he said when he was questioned about Dieudonné, again prosecuted for advocating terrorism after the broadcast of a video entitled “October 7, day of joy”. “I think that when we cross certain limits, particularly when it veers into racism or anti-Semitism or lacks respect for a community, we need to reframe these people. That said, I remain in favor of freedom of expression, despite everything», Judged Elie Semoun, failing to specify that the complaints against Guillaume Meurice for “provocation to violence and anti-Semitic hatred” and “public insults of an anti-Semitic nature” had been dismissed by the courts. In the classification mail, that the Liberation newspaper had been able to consult, the Nanterre public prosecutor's office had indicated that it had “decided, after studying the elements of the file, to close the complaint against him without further action, the offenses denounced not seeming to me to be sufficiently characterized”.
Since his interview with JDD, Internet users have called for a boycott of Elie Semoun, accused of wanting to “demonize Blanche Gardin”.
