Bruno Retailleau triggers an article 40 after the tweet of a deputy LFI – Libération

The Amsterdam evening of November 7, during which serious incidents opposed pro-Palestinian activists to supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv club, is imported to France. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced on Saturday on X that he would take legal action after a tweet from LFI MP Marie Mesmeur.

The latter is in the Vendéen's sights for its response to a comment by PCF boss Fabien Roussel, who condemned the violence against supporters of the Israeli football club: “Last night in Amsterdam, supporters were chased, threatened and lynched in the street of a European city because they are Jewish. The hatred is growing, unbearable. The perpetrators must be arrested and sentenced to the height of this monstrosity.”

“These people were not lynched because they were Jewish, but because they were racist and supported genocide.” replied the MP for Ille-et-Vilaine, sparking many outraged reactions. Licra criticized the elected official for her use of the expression «“Supports of genocide”: these are the labels that you and your friends constantly attach to your adversaries. Your justification for pogromist violence is serious. As a national elected official, she commits you heavily.» In response to the tweet, many elected officials, from the left to the far right, condemned Marie Mesmeur's message.

Anti-Arab provocations and anti-Semitic violence

Enough to encourage Bruno Retailleau to report these few sentences as an apology for crime. “I have decided to report to the Paris Prosecutor the comments of Deputy Marie Mesmeur, under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for apologizing for a crime”he reacted on X, Saturday evening. Marie Mesmeur reacted in a press release on Saturday evening, ensuring that she did not legitimize the violence, and of her commitment against anti-Semitism.

Although the investigation is still ongoing and numerous testimonies, confirmed by the police, have been able to establish that certain Maccabi supporters increased the number of provocations and racist insults in the streets of Amsterdam – a taxi driver attacked, a flag Palestinian burned, chants «Fuck you Palestine» intoned – the anti-Semitic nature of certain violence has also been demonstrated. In certain videos relayed on social networks, Maccabi supporters are chased and beaten in the streets of Amsterdam. Some attackers force them to say “Free Palestine” while beating them. A video shows a man insulting another in Arabic, including calling him a “son of a bitch of a Jew”.