Extract of the clip “Offline” by rapper Freeze Corleone -

Screenshot Freeze Corleone / Death Eater Squad

The government announced Thursday that it had taken legal action over several clips deemed “anti-Semitic” and “negationist” by rapper Freeze Corleone, which provoked outrage from the LREM majority.

The interministerial delegate for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred (Dilcrah), Frédéric Potier, indicated that he had made a report to the Paris prosecutor after having identified nine passages that would constitute incitement to racial hatred, under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The Interior Ministry also said a report would be made in the afternoon.

LREM deputies call for sanctions

In extracts from his clips broadcast on social networks and compiled in particular by Licra, this rising figure of French rap declares among other things: "I arrive determined like Adolf in the 1930s", "every day RAF (nothing to give a fuck ) of the Shoah ”or even“ like Swiss bankers, everything for the family so that my children live like Jewish pensioners ”.

Earlier in the day, around fifty LREM deputies had called for sanctions, saying they were "deeply shocked by the absolutely detestable anti-Semitic and denial-level remarks made by Freeze Corleone".

"The latter openly defends Nazism and praises the terrorist Mollah Omar", write the deputies including the deputy of Yvelines, Aurore Bergé, the former minister of the Ecological Transition, François de Rugy, or the president from the Law Commission, Yaël Braun-Pivet.

Apology for Nazism and anti-Semitism ... These words are unspeakable.

At my request, the Ministry of the Interior is studying as quickly as possible legal remedies to prosecute their author.

I am already calling on Facebook and Twitter not to spread this garbage.

https://t.co/oKT645QejN

- Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) September 16, 2020

Licra asks streaming platforms to react

The leader of the LREM deputies Christope Castaner also indicated to have seized the prosecutor, denouncing a clip "intolerable".

"Our Republic cannot accept that pseudo artistic expression can serve as a pretext for calls for hatred or for the apology of terrorism", also commented the deputies.

“Let’s not let anything go,” they add.

In a tweet, the Minister of the Interior was indignant at "unspeakable" remarks: "I call on Facebook and Twitter not to disseminate this refuse".

Licra also believes that "impunity must end" and asks all players including the major online music distribution platforms to "take their responsibilities".

On the right, the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes (LR) Eric Ciotti denounces a "real preacher of hate" and also calls on digital platforms to delete him and to ban his songs from broadcasting.

The Dilcrah also underlined to have reported these remarks "for purposes of recording, with the platform Pharos of the central office fight against the crime related to technologies of information and communication".

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