“When it comes to freedom of expression, even if we have to go onto the field on one leg and blindfolded, we are going to play it this match. Solidarity still exists, and it is the best defense. » In his show The Great Sunday evening on France Inter, Belgian host Charline Vanhoenacker wanted to support her columnist Guillaume Meurice.
The comedian was suspended from his duties on Thursday pending a possible sanction which could go as far as dismissal, four days after having reiterated his controversial comments about Benjamin Netanyahu made at the end of October, comparing the Israeli leader to a “kind of a Nazi but without a foreskin” .
Read also: Comedian Guillaume Meurice suspended by Radio France: we summarize the case for you in three acts
“Inter sent Guillaume Meurice to boarding school”
A criminal complaint was filed against him following these comments, accusing him of anti-Semitism, but it was dismissed. Summoned on May 16, he received the support of the editorial staff of France Inter and many left-wing leaders, after this layoff.
Guillaume Meurice, whose usual place in the studio was symbolically left empty, “has no right to be with us this evening, Inter sent him to boarding school to get him back on the right path”quipped Charline Vanhoenacker at the start of her show. “Some of you are wondering why we are not on strike. We are specialists in strikes, we have done them all for ten years and we know the rules: five days’ notice to Radio France. Wouldn’t you also like us to become outlaws? »she added.
“As the far right has decided to silence us this evening, we are not going to give them this pleasure”continued the host, reserving several barbs for the public group. “I reassure our managers at Radio France, this column has been proofread by a lawyer because, as I feel that HR (human resources, editor’s note) is very busy firing colleagues, I am saving them unnecessary meetings”.
Live resignation
“By spending more time in HR and the PJ (judicial police) than writing jokes, we will end up agreeing with people who say that public money is poorly spent,” she said.
Several columnists expressed their support for Guillaume Meurice, until the brilliance of Djamil Le Schlag, who repeated the comments about Netanyahu, to the applause of the public, and announced that he was leaving France Inter. “Personally, I don’t see what’s shocking about comparing Netanyahu to a kind of Nazi without a foreskin”did he declare.
“I come back to the management of France Inter. Who do you think you’re scaring with your threats of layoff? Personally, I am an Arab in France, I have always been threatened with being fired. […] I drew conclusions by retiring from public service after the show, it was my last column. […] In this station, I no longer feel in my “safe space””.
