Teddy Riner and Tibo Inshape against Bruno Retailleau – Liberation

2-1 on the clock. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said this Tuesday, March 25 « Radical disagreement » With the Teddy Riner judoka concerning wearing the veil in sports competitions. The five -time Olympic champion estimated on Sunday, on the RMC Sport channel, that France « Wait his time » on these questions and that it was better « Pens (er) equality » rather than « To be on one and the same religion ».

« Teddy Riner, he made me vibrate, we love the sportsman » but « There I am in radical disagreement with him »reacted Bruno Retailleau on Europe 1/CNews this Tuesday morning. « The veil is not the symbol of freedom, it is the symbol of submission. » « Nor is he the marker of equality, on the contrary, he radically disputes equality between men and women, he is a sign of the inferiorization of the status of women »he retorted. « Obviously all the women who wear the veil are not Islamists »continued the Minister of the Interior. « But you will not find a single Islamist who does not want women to wear the veil. »

Another more unexpected voice appeared in the debate, in the person of the first Youtubeur de France, the influencer Fitness Tibo Inshape, who adopted a pro-Choix position. “Everyone must be able to practice a sporting activity with the holding of their choice: cross, kippah or sail. It is a choice that everyone must make and we should not impose or prohibit them ”he wrote on X Monday evening. Opposite the discourse of ministers, right and extreme right, he believes that “Sport does not radicalize, on the contrary it helps to integrate each person regardless of their origin, skin color or religion. You have to encourage everyone and especially women to play sports. Because for some prohibiting them from being able to wear the veil is to deprive them of sport and therefore of a social activity. « 

In a few hours, the tweet is seen almost three million times. And for good reason, the positioning of the most followed French YouTubeur, Usually attached to a more right ideology, surprises. During the last legislative elections, he had refused to call to block the far right on his social networks, as did other influencers like Léna situations or Squeezie. After the elections, he revealed his ballot: macronist.

The LR bill prohibiting wearing the veil during competitions including amateur sport was voted in February in the Senate. The text, which must now be examined in the National Assembly, has sown cacophony within the government, Driving Prime Minister François Bayrou to bring together several ministers in mid-March to end the dissonances. Since then, all the ministers including the Minister of Sports Marie Barsacq who had issued reservations, say they are favorable to this LR text.

Ex-minister of the interior and currently justice Gérald Darmanin had put his « participation » In the Bayrou team in the scale if the government did not support this text. « The government line is the prohibition of the veil in sports events to preserve sport as a sanctuary »decided this Tuesday, Bruno Retailleau.