In this sequence broadcast on Friday, presenter Pascal Praud makes the link between the proliferation of bedbugs and immigration. Members of Renaissance, LFI, EELV and even the PS condemned these comments.
A “racist shortcut”remarks “sordid”…. A sequence from the program “L’Heure des Pros” on Friday September 29, on CNews, arouses the indignation of several elected officials as well as the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra). In this sequence, the presenter, Pascal Praud, questions his guest on the link between the proliferation of bedbugs and immigration. “I grab the Arcom”the Regulatory Authority for audiovisual and digital communication, indicates on X (formerly Twitter) the deputy La France insoumise Aurélien Saintoul.
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“Do we know why there are more bedbugs today? Is it linked to hygiene?” begins Pascal Praud, who addresses Nicolas Roux de Bézieux, director of Badbugs.fr, a site specializing in domestic pests. “I’m going to ask all the questions. There is a lot of immigration at the moment. Is it people who don’t have the same hygienic conditions as those on French soil who bring , because they are on the street, perhaps they do not have access to all the services like the others, is this linked to that? [sic]”adds the presenter. “Absolutely not”, replies the expert. Guest of franceinfo on Thursday, he indicated that “the primary cause of infestation is travel” And “that it is mainly via suitcases that the bug will travel”.
For Aurélien Saintoul, “These comments are obviously racist”. “The so-called prudence of P. Praud does not hide the memory of Maurras who affirmed ‘the terrible vermin of the Jews of the East, brings lice, the plague, typhus’. Ignoble’, he is indignant. ‘Pascal Praud ignores that there is absolutely NO link between the proliferation of bedbugs and hygiene. He prefers to make a racist shortcut”engages Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group at the National Assembly, again on X. “If bedbugs fed on nonsense, Pascal Praud’s home would be infested with them,” asserts the one who asked in 2019, on franceinfo, “an immediate emergency plan to eradicate bedbugs”.
“Sordid”, “what a shame” remarks…
The indignation extends beyond the Insoumis ranks. “Racism now freewheeling and without complexes”accuses the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure. “When we are asked why environmentalists refuse to go on CNews, you have the answer here”comments the national secretary of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, Marine Tondelier. “What a shame”reacts Christopher Weissberg, spokesperson for the Renaissance deputies. “Pascal Praud’s comments are sordid and of a racism that we thought had disappeared. At one time, the far-right press spread propaganda that Jews brought diseases, today it is migrants”, he adds, thus joining Aurélien Saintoul. For the deputy of the first constituency of French people established outside France, “I Am Everywhere is Back”. He is referring here to one of the main organs of the collaborationist press during the Second World War.
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“The CNews hygiene committee met to rule on the link between vermin and immigration. Pascal Praud is asking the question… Our legal committee will ask itself the question of the qualification of such a statement”, reacts for its part the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra). As for the SOS Racisme association, it judges that “Pascal Praud’s comments making a link between bedbugs and immigration amount to crass racism”.