By Andrew Warshaw
January 10 – The controversial French comic whose alleged Nazi-style gesture was copied by former French international Nicolas Anelka, prompting a global outcry by anti-racist groups, was banned from performing this week by the highest court in France – just before he was about to go on stage.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls appealed to the Council of State to intervene minutes after a judge in the city of Nantes overturned an original ban on Dieudonne M’bala M’bala who allegedly has a number of convictions for anti-Semitic speeches.
Pro-Dieudonne fans booed outside the concert hall in Nantes, where more than 5,000 people had paid to see him on Thursday as part of a nationwide tour.
The judge in Nantes had earlier said he did not regard the show, entitled The Wall, as having “an attack on human dignity as its main object”. But the Council of State ultimately upheld the ban on Thursday’s performance despite a challenge by the comedian’s lawyers that his freedom of expression had been breached.
The president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, had earlier called on France to “confront this preacher of hate head on”.
Over Christmas, the much-travelled Anelka brought the controversy surrounding Dieudonne to Britain by performing the so-called “quenelle” – which looks like an inverted Nazi salute – in celebrating a goal for West Bromwich Albion, his current club.
Anelka, understood to be subject to an internal investigation, said the gesture was in “solidarity” with his friend. He insisted it was merely anti-establishment was anything but anti-Semitic.
Dieudonne has been accused of deriding Holocaust survivors and victims in his material but remains booked to play at a series of other French venues until June, although there are likely to be other cancellations.
Anelka, meanwhile, has pledged not to repeat the action, which shows the left hand held across the shoulder of the right arm pointing downwards.
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