French Interior Minister Slams Singer’s Claims of Racial Police Violence

Camélia Jordana openly accused the police of "massacring" men and women because of their skin color, last Saturday on France 2, on the show "On n’est pas couché". Faced with the virulence of her words, the Minister of the Interior responded negatively through a tweet. "No, madam, ’the men and women who go to work every morning in the suburbs’ are not ’massacred for no other reason than their skin color’. These false and shameful remarks fuel hatred and violence. They call for an unreserved condemnation," reports 20minutes.fr.

The singer’s response did not take long. Through the same channel used by the minister, she writes: "My false and shameful remarks attempt to initiate a dialogue with our leaders (you), to move things forward. But you deny it even though you can clearly see what is happening. And so can we. Your duty is to protect us. Protect us," tweeted Camélia Jordana.

Christophe Castaner is not the only one to go against the singer’s remarks. In a statement, the police union Alliance denounced on Sunday "unacceptable accusations against the police and which have the name of racism, murders..." It intends to refer the matter to the public prosecutor and calls on the Minister of the Interior to do the same. It will be followed by the National Police Commissioners’ Union (SPCN) which, in a tweet, spoke of a "distressing testimony" from a "new star of stupidity" who demonstrates in two minutes "the poverty of her thinking", accompanied by "scandalous and slanderous" arguments, broadcast on public service.

From tweet to tweet, the controversy is growing and taking on political overtones. Many right-wing and far-right elected officials, such as Eric Ciotti (LR) and Julien Odoul (RN), have also denounced the artist’s "shameful remarks" on Twitter. Camélia Jordana, on the other hand, received public support from the Insoumis European elected officials such as Manon Aubry and Manuel Bompard. The former LREM deputy, Aurélien Taché, while giving her his support, wrote to her that "the price to pay will be terrible... You knew it. They will deny it and then reverse the burden of proof and once again, try to make the victims out to be the guilty parties. This France is so different from the one in which we grew up".

In a statement released on Sunday evening, SOS Racisme also expressed its support for the singer and "reiterates its request that the project to fight racism within the police and gendarmerie be opened".