Marseille Sailing Club President Under Fire for Anti-Arab Comments

"So I’m not racist, but now I’m fed up with Arabs. You can’t do anything without an Arab coming to bother you. They take advantage of the half-hour of free parking... Plus, just melons, just Arabs. Not a blond, a white, one who is well behaved, no, just Arabs." This is how Christian Tommasini, president of the Pointe-Rouge Yachting Club (YCPR), expressed himself, referring to the security situation in the port of the southern districts managed by his association. And to add, more threatening: "I don’t care! The day I have to arm myself, I’ll be the first to go rat hunting."

None of the elected officials present at this port council meeting reacted to these racist remarks, however punishable by the Penal Code. Didier Réault, Republican vice-president of the Metropolis in charge of the coastline, told La Province that he did not endorse these remarks. "I recognize that this expression is violent, but it expresses a malaise. The port managers have been threatened with death very regularly," he explains. Sophie Roques, deputy mayor of Marseille, also present at this meeting, admits to having been "stunned and shocked by the remarks made".

"I’m not at all racist, I have a lot of Muslim friends, with whom I go out or play boules, who understand my annoyance in the face of hordes of people who are outside the law," Christian Tommasini told La Provence, who tried to clarify his remarks. "My words went beyond my thoughts. I regret what I said," he assures, acknowledging that he got carried away by using the word "rat hunt".

The remarks provoked an avalanche of reactions from political figures on social networks. "Everyone must take their responsibilities in the face of these odious remarks, I take mine, on behalf of the community, by suspending the YCPR’s grant requests to the town hall," announced Hervé Menchon, the (EELV) deputy mayor for the sea. "Racism is not an opinion, it is a crime. The remarks of the president of the YCPR are abject and unacceptable. The city of Marseille is suspending all its relations with this association," tweeted Benoît Payan, the PS mayor of Marseille.

Alexandra Louis, the LREM deputy for the northern districts, also denounced on Twitter "these abject remarks", assuring that she will refer the matter to the courts. "On behalf of the city of Marseille, I will report these remarks to the public prosecutor," Théo Challande, the (EELV) deputy mayor of Marseille, tweeted in turn. "The Republic is one and indivisible. No French person, whatever their origins, ideas or skin color, deserves the stigmatizing remarks that have been made. This is not acceptable," Martine Vassal, the LR president of the Metropolis and organizer of this port council, also tweeted.