Laurent Nuñez, the prefect of police of Paris, warned the controversial humorist Dieudonné, that he was considering banning his show scheduled for September 14 at the Zénith de Paris. In this letter dated Tuesday, addressed to Dieudonné and of which AFP has read, Laurent Nuñez, in agreement with the Minister of the Interior, evokes “attacks on human dignity”. In June, Dieudonné sent the prefect the text of this show which he is presenting with the antivax singer Francis Lalanne.
The prefect of police also considers that there is a “serious risk that the holding of this show will lead to serious disturbances of public order with people hostile to (the) representation” and to clashes between supporters and opponents. . He also points out that the show is planned during the Rugby World Cup, at a time when the police will be heavily mobilized. Laurent Nuñez informs the comedian that he has the possibility “until August 31, 6 p.m.” to present “his observations” before the final prefectural decision.
Dieudonné, polemicist convicted several times for racial insults and incitement to hatred, and Francis Lalanne have already tried to play La Cage aux fous at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris on April 7. The show had not taken place because “the commercial offer presented to the Cirque d’Hiver, which was that of farewell concerts by Francis Lalanne, did not correspond to the reality of what was really planned”, had argued. the lawyer of the Bouglione family, owner of the room, in Le Parisien.
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”, its president Daniel Colling said in a press release.