Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

‘Quenelle’ Comic Dieudonne Wins Court Battle on Ban Over ‘Nazi’ Gesture

A French court threw out efforts by authorities to ban a show on Thursday by a comedian whom the government accuses of insulting the memory of Holocaust victims.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has been leading the effort to stop a national tour by comedian Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, said he would appeal the ruling by an administrative court in the western city of Nantes.

The Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, would convene at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) to examine whether to uphold Valls’ appeal, which would reinstate the ban on the show, due to begin two hours later.

“The judge will mostly likely take his decision this evening,” a Council spokeswoman said.

Previously, the Council has ruled against bans ordered by local authorities on Dieudonne performances.

Local authorities in Nantes had barred the opening date of Dieudonne’s tour, following the lead of other cities which also banned his shows on the grounds of risk to public order.

Dieudonne’s lawyer Jacques Verdier said the Nantes court had suspended the ban, describing the ruling as a “total and complete victory” for his client, who has argued his right to freedom of expression was being breached.

Critics say the comic’s trademark straight-arm gesture is a Nazi salute in reverse. Dieudonne, 46, says it is anti-Zionist and anti-establishment, but not anti-Semitic.

Dieudonne has been repeatedly fined for hate speech.

The decision of the court is a setback for President Francois Hollande, who argued for regional prefects to remain “on alert and inflexible” in determining whether or not to ban the shows, and for Valls, shown by polls to be France’s most popular politician for his tough law and order stance.

A former conservative interior minister said Valls’ approach was ill-prepared.

“In effect it’s given untold publicity to Dieudonne,” said Brice Hortefeux, interior minister under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, told BFM TV.

The Jewish CRIF umbrella organisation called for a protest in central Paris on Sunday against Dieudonne and urged the government to renew efforts to block him performing.

CRIF urged a strong showing “in every city where Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala is holding his hateful and nauseating meetings,” it said in a statement.

In a tweet, Dieudonne taunted Valls and thanked his fans, who have bought more than 5,000 tickets to see the Nantes show.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.