The French footballer Karim Benzema accused by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin of having links to Islamist groups Muslim brothers, received this Thursday the support of leftist leaders Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“Chosen by the Government and its allies it’s a demon. They call him ‘paper French’. Of such enemies, who use those terms, must be a famous personwithout ethnic or religious hatred,” wrote the politician, who heads the third largest group in parliament, on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Mélenchon defines himself Spanish roots to establish a comparison with Benzema, who is of Algerian origin although born in France. The footballer has dual nationality.
“I am the grandson of people who were also treated ‘French paper‘of the ‘Petenists’ who withdrew their papers from those who became French in less than ten years,” said the leftist leader, third in the last presidential election.
“France belongs those who choose it. “Those who insult us do not deserve it,” he concluded.
Darmanin assured last Monday in a Cnews television program that Benzema has links to the Muslim Brotherhoodan Islamist group born in Egypt and considered terrorist in Saudi Arabia, the country where the former Real Madrid forward currently plays.
The minister did not contribute then no proof of those links, which if true is not a crime. Sources in his cabinet detailed some hints which, according to their interpretation, points in that direction.
The last of them, a message to X in which he showed his support for the population Palestinebombed”unequal” in the opinion of the player, who is criticized by his critics for the disproportionate reaction after the attack of Hamas against Israel on the 7th.
Inside sources reckon Benzema is in “a drift towards a hard, rigid Islam, characteristic of ideology” of the Muslim Brotherhood “consisting of spreading Islamic norms in various social spaces, especially in sports.”
Benzema’s lawyer Hugues Vigier has denied the accusations of his client’s links to the Muslim Brotherhood and announced that he would denounce the minister for those insinuations, which he considered “opportunistic.”
In statements to the newspaper Le Parisien, the lawyer also revealed that he is studying sue conservative senator Valérie Boyer, who demanded that the footballer’s nationality be revoked if his proximity to the Muslim Brotherhood was confirmed.
“That size is impossible because it is a person born in France with one of the parents also French. Which reminds us of what happened to Nazi Germany”said the lawyer.
Benzema, who is 35, played 97 international matches before ending his career with the French team in 2022 due to ongoing disagreements with the coach. Didier Deschamps. This season he signed for Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, after 14 seasons at Real Madrid.
Source: La Verdad

I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.