Pierre Hurmic, environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux, and his Strasbourg counterpart Jeanne Barseghian have let their entourage know that they will not be going to their party’s summer days this week in Le Havre. A decision made due to the controversial programming of the rapper Médine at the event.
After the moods, the defections. The return of the Greens will thus be without Ms. Barseghian, who considers that “Medine has a too ambiguous position on anti-Semitism”, explained to AFP a spokesperson for the mayor of Strasbourg. An allusion to the controversial artist’s recent tweet, which revived the recurring accusations against him by calling the essayist Rachel Khan, Jewish and granddaughter of deportees, “resKHANpée” in a message on X (ex-Twitter) .
The rapper had apologized for this “unsuitable formula, which must have offended people”.
The Alsatian councilor “had pleaded for the cancellation of the participation” of the rapper in the summer days of the environmental party, “but this is not the option that was chosen”, added this same source. On the Gironde side, Pierre Hurmic issued a brief press release announcing that he “will stay with the people of Bordeaux this week” because of the heat wave, while affirming that “anti-Semitism, ‘wherever he comes, is an infamy to be combated’. “We have too many challenges to overcome to disperse ourselves in futile controversies,” said the mayor of Bordeaux, his entourage confirming that this decision is “particularly linked to the controversy that arose” from the tweet in question.
Several leading environmentalists, however, expressed their discomfort last week, from Julien Bayou to Sandrine Rousseau, including Karima Delli and Noël Mamère. Despite these dissensions, Ms. Tondelier maintained her debate with the artist on Thursday at the end of the day, while warning that she would be “extremely attentive to what Medina will say” on this occasion and “the days that will follow”.
