The meeting between the comedian Yassine Belattar and advisors to the Elysée criticized even in the majority

A meeting that makes one cringe. The leader of the Renaissance deputies, Sylvain Maillard, “regret” that the controversial comedian Yassine Belattar was received last week by Emmanuel Macron’s advisors. “I regret it because I think that its place is not to be received by collaborators of the Elysée”reacted Sylvain Maillard Friday November 17 on franceinfo.

🔴 Comedian Yassine Belattar received by advisors at the Elysée ➡️ “I regret it,” reacts Sylvain Maillard. “His place is not to be received at the Elysée. I think the president has nothing to do with this initiative.” #8h30franceinfo pic.twitter.com/QkXWby4QNh

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) November 17, 2023

Two advisors to Emmanuel Macron received the comedian and radio host last week to take the pulse of the suburbs on the situation of the war between Israel and Hamas, revealed Tuesday The Express. Yassine Belattar’s speeches on the suburbs earned him the attention of Emmanuel Macron, who appointed him in 2018 to the Presidential Council of Cities, intended to fuel the executive’s thinking on priority neighborhoods.

In a message published onMEP François-Xavier Bellamy, member of the Republicans, described this interview as “absolute shame”. “It is therefore from Yassine Belattar, recently convicted of death threats and known for his connections with Islamists, that the Head of State takes advice on his participation in the march against anti-Semitism”for her part commented on Wednesday Marine Le Pen onreferring to the absence of the Head of State at the march against anti-Semitism on November 12 in Paris.

The comedian criticizes the controversy

The comedian, a long-time target of the right and the far right who accuse him of proximity to Islamism, was sentenced in September to four months in prison for death threats and crimes targeting several personalities of the entertainment world. Reacting to the controversy on his Instagram account, the comedian denounced ‘”the very idea that a Frenchman of foreign origin, and moreover a Muslim, enters the Elysée has just caused two days of controversy in our country”.

On the government side, the Secretary of State for Citizenship and the City insisted on the fact that this meeting took place with political advisors and not directly with Emmanuel Macron. “I don’t know Yassine Belattar’s links with the advisors. (…) The advisors take their part; the president, we leave him out of all that”Sabrina Agresti-Roubache said on Friday on CNews and Europe 1.