Rabat – In the latest development in France’s hate speech against immigrants, a French sports journalist said on national television that immigrants are causing France’s recent bed bugs problem.
While talking on a live show on CNews, Pascal Praud, a sports reporter, said that the bed bugs epidemic coincides with the increased influx of immigrants.
Videos showing bed bugs on trains and in the Paris Metro have been shared on social media, and numerous individuals have claimed to have seen them in movie theaters and even at the Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The infestation is stocking fears ahead of the Olympics that are set to take place in Paris next year.
“Do we know why there are more bedbugs today? Is it related to hygiene? I will ask all the questions,” Praud said, hedging his soon-to-follow attack on immigrants.
“There is a lot of immigration right now. Are these people who do not have the same hygiene conditions as those who are on the ground in France bringing them because they are on the streets, maybe because they do not have access to all the services like others? Is it related to that?” he continued.
Praud’s comments drew widespread backlash online with social media users arguing that the infestation is more likely linked to the strike of waste collectors.
“Now he can no longer deny he is from the extreme right… blame poor immigrants on the bedbug affair,” one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I think given their situation, immigrants don’t really have time to go to the cinema or there are many cases of bedbugs…. Pathetic.”
Praud’s blatant attacks on immigrants are not an isolated incident. France’s unique model of secularism has for years encouraged hate speech against religious and ethnic minorities.
The country is facing the prospect of Muslims boycotting its Paris Olympics after French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said that the country’s athletes would be banned from wearing hijabs during the Paris Games. According to the French minister, the decision is taken to uphold the country’s secularism principles.
France’s secularism, largely considered as a war on religious freedom, drew backlash from Muslims around the world as well as international organizations, with the UN’s spokesperson declaring that no one has the right to tell women what to wear.
Read Also: Bedbugs Infestation Spreads Across Paris Amid Olympics Preparation
