French press review 10 January 2014

The French dailies are all about Dieudonné, the controversial French comic who was at the centre of a judicial battle throughout Thursday as he prepared to launch a nationwide tour with a show condemned as anti-Semitic.

Le Figaro, Aujourd’hui en France, Libération and even the Communist Party newspaper l'Humanité all roll out pulsating accounts of the dramatic standoff in the western French city of Nantes, where Dieudonné M’bala M’bala was due to take to the stage, and in Paris.

Nantes Judge Jean-François Molla had ruled that a perceived risk to public order as alleged by the government could not be used to "justify as radical a measure as banning the show". But Judge Bernard Stirn of the Council of State overruled the decision, holding "the reality and gravity of the risk of trouble to public order" was "established".

In court Dieudonné's lawyer also rejected suggestions that the "quenelle" - a stiff-arm gesture that has become the comic's signature and helped fuel his fame -  has anti-Semitic overtones. The quenelle, which involves holding the right arm straight while pointing it towards the ground and touching the right bicep with the left hand, has been described as a disguised Nazi salute.

Dieudonné's supporters argue that it is simply a light-hearted "up yours" gesture directed at France's establishment.

The Communist Party daily l’Humanité describes the tug of war between Interior Minister Manuel Valls and Dieudonné as pathetic. It accuses Valls of making the anti-Semite a victim, noting that the stand-up comic had been set to perform before a full theatre, with 5,596 tickets representing 90 per cent of the hall's capacity having been sold days before the show was due to get underway.

La Croix shares l’Humanité’s position pointing out that by criticising, condemning and taking Dieudonné to court with the intent to ban his show his opponents are just giving the polemicist undue publicity and making him even more popular.

Liberation says the Council of State's decision to ban the Nantes show brings the curtain down on hatred.

“The time of laughter is over”, writes Aujourdhui en France noting that it took two contradictory court rulings to stop the “provocateur” from taking to the stage.

The State Council ruling leaves the rest of Dieudonné’s tour, which is scheduled to run until June, in doubt, although planned dates in neighbouring Belgium and Switzerland are expected to go ahead in line with recent legal rulings in those countries.

For Le Figaro, the role of the minister of interior in the matter, constitutes a case of absolute abuse of office. Dieudonné, it argues, couldn’t have dreamt of having a better impresario adding that Valls's conduct has actually dragged the government onto perilous terrain. According to the paper, while Valls may have obtained the ban on Dieudonné he desperately wanted, it isn’t sure whose scalp is next.

Le Figaro is also monitoring the suspense in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, as regional leaders contemplate the fate of the country’s interim leader, Michel Djotodia, at a summit in Chad.

According to the paper, the ex-rebel leader was summoned to N'Djamena, where the emergency meeting on the CAR started on Thursday. Le Figaro reports that the gathering is fast turning into a national conference where top politicians and civil society leaders from Bangui are being consulted on designating a new transitional leader for the country.

Djotodia has become part of the problem in his fictitious country, having proven incapable of controlling the Séléka rebellion which brought him to power and which is now responsible for the violence and massacres which sparked a refugee crisis in the country, it argues.

For Le Figaro, what remains to be seen is how the predominantly Muslim Séléka will react to the advent of a Christian-led regime in Bangui.