Benzema’s hiding something, says French minister in Islamist row
Darmanin, a tough-talking right-winger with designs on the presidency, made the accusation last week after Benzema posted his support for the residents of Gaza during its bombardment by Israel.
ABU DHABI: French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin defended his claim that Karim Benzema has links with the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, insisting the star footballer’s “selective” social media posts showed he was hiding something.
Darmanin, a tough-talking right-winger with designs on the presidency, made the accusation last week after Benzema posted his support for the residents of Gaza during its bombardment by Israel.
The bombings were triggered by an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, who stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, kidnapping 222 others.
More than 6,500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across the Gaza Strip in relentless Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to the latest toll from the Hamas health ministry in Gaza.
Benzema, the French international forward now playing in Saudi Arabia, has an “extraordinary societal responsibility”, Darmanin said, referring to his fame and social media following.
“You might ask why the interior minister reacts to the tweet of a footballer, but when he touches 20 million people I think it’s my role to denounce that,” Darmanin told an audience of French community leaders during a trip to Abu Dhabi.
“Because you could ask what is a footballer doing tweeting a political opinion, and when he does it he does it in a selective way.
“I think personally that that is hiding something, and not to see it is naive.”
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