The concomitance of the arrest of Boualem Sansal with the case of the repeal of the offense of apologizing for terrorism is an accident of timing which says a lot about freedom of expression as La France insoumise understands it, and confirms the ripples of his indignation when his electoral interests are at stake.
With the exception of Alexis Corbière who can now say what he thinks without risking the excommunication with which he has already been hit, there was no one in the ranks of LFI to condemn Algeria's decision.
Naively, we say to ourselves that the left – in particular – of our country should mobilize entirely to demand the immediate release of the writer detained in Algiers without legal reason, except for all of his work. This is done among socialists who remember who they are and everything that distinguishes them from LFI: François Hollande, Bernard Cazeneuve, Jérôme Guedj and Carole Delga. Olivier Faure spoke with the usual precautions, as for the usual environmentalist or communist loudmouths, it is radio silence. And yet, the fate of Sansal is infinitely more worrying than that of Paul Watson in Greenland, unless one considers like Aznavour that poverty is less painful in the sun…
For Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his troops, the Franco-Algerian intellectual is guilty of an inexcusable fault: he is too French in his attachment to secularism, and not Algerian enough in his atheism or his relationship to Israel…
In short, since his books talk about the Shoah or Algerian communitarianism in the French suburbs (“The German's Village”)and warn democracies about the dangers of radical Islamism (“2084, the end of the world”)this one is no better than Kamel Daoud or even Salman Rushdie. If Boualem Sansal has been languishing for ten days in an Algiers jail, it is ultimately because he sought it out, he whose work is also the object of a nasty exploitation by the extreme right to legitimize his xenophobic and racist discourse.
The Insoumis did not have a word of support for the Franco-Algerian writer but they must be understood. Their current fight is directed against the offense of glorifying terrorism, the repeal of which they demand, on the grounds – hold on tight – that it contravenes freedom of expression.
For LFI, there is therefore a bad and a good use of freedom of expression, and if you do not understand the nuance, we will explain to you. When an intellectual from the South committed against obscurantism and for democracy criticizes the Algerian power and fights political Islam, it is bad. Boualem Sansal could end his life in prison, as his lawyer fears.
On the other hand, when Mathilde Panot and Rima Hassan justify the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, it is good, and they should not be bothered by the judicial police. For the rebels who have made it an electoral business, we should be able to find excuses for terrorists and blow on the embers of anti-Semitism in peace, and if the law prevents this, then the law must be changed.
When will the Republican left – finally – stop alienating itself from “Unfrequentable France” ?
France
