The words chosen by the writer Richard Millet to describe Lucie Castets, left-wing candidate for the post of Prime Minister, on the Cnews set, have aroused the anger of his camp.
Lucie Castets’ candidacy for the post of Prime Minister is definitely not unanimous. But if the arguments of the presidential camp and other opponents of the left and the New Popular Front alliance are essentially political, now the senior civil servant is the subject of comments about her person and her sexual orientation. It is on the air of Cnewson Pascal Praud’s show, that a homophobic comment against Lucie Castets was made by the writer Richard Millet.
“Who is this woman? We chose an unknown person, sexually incorrect, all that goes together, who is left-wing. It is not possible,” judged the essayist, expressing his clear opposition to the NFP candidate. Blanc on the set, before the host Pascal Praud corrected his guest on his remarks, without rushing him too much: “What does a correct sexual orientation mean? The moderator that I am must intervene because that is precisely not the subject.”
Richard Millet immediately attempts a self-rectification: “We choose an unknown, it’s almost a construction: we choose a woman […] she is 40 years old, she is not bad, she is sexually well oriented according to the new standards of the new world.” A speech implying that homosexuality could be a political criterion: “When we are in a political logic of this kind, it is a plus”. End of the explanation of the controversial remarks of the essayist, which are summarized by Pascal Praud in “analysis” that he “does not [veut] not to dispute since […] on this plateau […] you with a freedom of tone and a look that others do not have.”
The left announces that it will seize Arcom
The sequence did not go unnoticed by the left and several politicians denounced the writer’s speech deemed homophobic. “Homophobia is a crime, not a political opinion” recalled Sandrine Rousseau on X. “Always further into abjection” reacted the communist Ian Brossat on the same social network. As for Fabien Roussel, the head of the PCF, he announced that he was seizing the Arcom, denouncing a “shameful and illegal” passage and believing that “in the face of homophobic hatred, the regulator must act with the greatest firmness”. Reaction also in the ranks of LFI with the deputy Hadrien Clouet: “We have known for a long time that Richard Millet is a fascist pedant. If Cnews invites him, it is to deliver the garbage that constitutes his thought”.
Richard Millet, writer and author of more than 80 books, has been at the heart of several controversies. He was notably accused of racism and apology for crime after the controversy that followed the publication of his essay Literary praise of Anders Breivik. The book referred to and rehabilitated the Norwegian far-right terrorist who carried out an attack that killed 77 people in Oslo and on the island of Utoya in 2011.
Lucie Castets, who publicly came out after being chosen by the NFP as the left-wing candidate for Prime Minister, had already been the subject of a wave of hatred and homophobic insults on social media. She had revealed that she was married to a woman in an interview published in Paris Match August 6th.