Dieudonné’s show at the Zénith de Paris banned by the police headquarters

Already canceled in several cities, the show of the controversial comedian Dieudonné will not take place on September 14 at the Zénith de Paris, the prefect of police having decided to ban it due to “risk of serious disturbance to public order” in view of his repeated anti-Semitic remarks according to Agence France-Presse, which cites extracts from the prohibition order drafted by Laurent Nuñez.

This ban is in addition to those taken during the summer in Lyons, Toulouse, BesanconGrenoble or Montpellier, where the comedian convicted of racial slurs and incitement to hatred was to present his new show The Fool’s Cage with antivax singer Francis Lalanne.

At the beginning of August, the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez had warned Dieudonné of this possibility of a ban, in particular because of “risk of serious disturbance to public order”, which he reiterated in the decree motivating his decision. In this letter, the prefect mentioned “attacks on human dignity” in the content of the show. Several exchanges then took place between the police headquarters and the lawyer of the polemicist, in particular on the communication of the script of the show.

Rosh Hashanah Eve

In his prohibition order, Laurent Nuñez noted that he was “common knowledge that the tenor of previous shows” by Dieudonne “apologized the discrimination, persecution and extermination perpetrated during the Second World War”. He further considered that the “elements put forward by the lawyer” of the controversial comedian were not “not likely to prevent the making of remarks undermining human dignity during the show and does not contribute[aient] thus no sufficient guarantees on the absence of disturbances to public order”.

Laurent Nuñez also pointed out that in an article by Rivarol (a far-right press organ) dated August 29, Dieudonné had stigmatized “The Jewish Lobby” claiming to want “Fight this hateful and racist lobby”.

The chief of police also noted that this show was to take place the day before the celebration by the Jewish community of Rosh Hashanah, the new year in the Hebrew calendar, and “near a synagogue”. Dieudonné and Francis Lalanne have already tried to play The Fool’s Cage at the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris on April 7. From the end of April, the Zénith de Paris had alerted the public authorities, recalling that a ban was coming back “to competent authorities only”.