Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has criticized Karim Benzema over a Gaza tweet and accused the soccer star of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. What is behind this?
In a television interview with CNews, France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin claimed that Karim Benzema was “notoriously linked to the Muslim Brotherhood”. Since then, the soccer star’s lawyer has vehemently rejected this accusation.
French media even report that the 35-year-old Benzema told his lawyer that he did not know exactly what the Muslim Brotherhood was and had only vaguely heard of it. The 35-year-old from Lyon has been under contract with Saudi club Al-Ittihad since this season. And Saudi Arabia regards the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. In Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928, the group – which some consider to be radical Islamist – has also been banned since 2013.
Benzema’s tweet on Gaza
The interior minister cited a tweet by Benzema as the background to the dispute, in which the French international and 2022 Ballon d’Or winner writes: “We pray for the people of Gaza, who have once again fallen victim to these unjust bombings that spare neither women nor children.”
Toutes nos prières pour les habitants de Gaza victimes une fois de plus de ces bombardements injustes qui n’épargnent ni femmes ni enfants.
– Karim Benzema (@Benzema) October 15, 2023
Green opposition politician Sandrine Rousseau wondered whether the Minister of the Interior had nothing better to do than deal with the tweets of a footballer.
Gérald Darmanin – who is himself very present on X – called on Karim Benzema to write a tweet of sympathy for the teacher killed in Arras
Benzema’s lawyer Hugues Vigier advised his client in the French media not to allow himself to be blackmailed by the Minister of the Interior.
Darmanin puts himself forward as a possible Macron successor
41-year-old Gérald Darmanin is positioning himself as one of the possible successors to French President Emmanuel Macron. His law-and-order omnipresence is reminiscent of former head of state and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Darmanin or Attal?
However, the former mayor of Tourcoing in northern France is not the only minister who wants to score domestic political points with pithy words and announcements in the fight against Islamism.
Following the murder of the teacher by a former pupil, France’s Education Minister Gabiel Attal has declared that he no longer wants radicalized young people in French schools. The 34-year-old former socialist Attal received applause from conservatives and the extreme right.
Emmanuel Macron may no longer run for president after two terms in office