The prefect of police Laurent Nuñez has decided to ban the show of the controversial humorist Dieudonné scheduled for September 14 at the Zénith de Paris, we learned on Wednesday from a source familiar with the matter.
The prohibition order will be published in the coming hours. At the beginning of August, the prefect had warned Dieudonné of this possibility of prohibition due in particular to “risks of serious disturbances to public order”, which he reiterated in the decree motivating his decision.
In this letter, Laurent Nuñez evoked “attacks on human dignity” in the content of the show, entitled “La Cage aux fous”.
Several letters were then exchanged between the police headquarters and the polemicist’s lawyer, in particular on the communication of the script for the show.
In his banning order, the prefect of police noted that it was “public knowledge that the content of previous shows” by Dieudonné “apologized the discrimination, persecution and extermination perpetrated during the Second World War. world”. He also considered that the “elements put forward by the lawyer” of the controversial comedian were “not likely to prevent the making of remarks undermining human dignity during the show and did not contribute ) thus not sufficient guarantees of the absence of disturbances to public order”.
Laurent Nuñez also points out that in an article by Rivarol (a far-right press organ) of August 29, Dieudonné had stigmatized “the Jewish lobby” by claiming to want to “fight this hateful and racist lobby”. In addition, the prefect of police notes that this show was to take place the day before the celebration by the Jewish community of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, which celebrates the new year in the Hebrew calendar, and “near a synagogue”.
Dieudonné, a comedian with multiple convictions for racial slurs and incitement to hatred, and Francis Lalanne, an antivax singer, have already tried to play La Cage aux fous at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris on April 7.
At the end of April, the Zénith de Paris had expressed its “vigilance”, in particular in terms of respect for “public order”, in the event of the reception of this show in September, recalling that a ban returned “only to the competent authorities”. “It is necessary to keep in mind that the operator of the Zénith has no leeway to authorize or prohibit the presentation of a show,” said its president Daniel Colling in a press release.
