French authorities are reportedly attempting to prevent Kanye West’s upcoming concert in Marseille from going ahead.
Earlier this month, the rapper’s three-date headline show at Wireless Festival in London was canceled after he was denied a visa over his repeated antisemitic comments.
Now, a spokesperson for French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has told Politico that the government is “very determined” to stop the June concert at the Marseille Vélodrome and is exploring “every possibility” to stop it.
He has the support of Marseille mayor Benoît Payan, who last month tweeted: “I refuse to let Marseille be a showcase for those who promote hatred and unapologetic Nazism. Kanye West is not welcome at the Vélodrome.”
French newspaper Le Monde reports that Nuñez has spoken to Payan, as well as Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur prefect Jacques Witkowski, but that France’s highest administrative court has ruled that “local state authorities can only ban a concert under strict conditions, if statements at the event risk constituting a criminal offense and if public order is threatened.”
West was prevented from even traveling to the UK because the British government rejected his application for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), with the Home Office announcing that his presence in the UK would “not be conducive to the public good.”
Shortly afterwards, Wireless Festival said it had cancelled the three-day event, and all ticketholders would be issued a refund.
That came after British ministers and Jewish groups said organisers of the London festival should be “ashamed” for inviting the musician to headline all three days of the event after he made a series of antisemitic statements last year. This included releasing a song called “Heil Hitler” and advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
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Responding to the decision to block his entry into the country, the Campaign Against Antisemitism said the government “has clearly made the right decision”.
A spokesperson added: “For once, when it said that antisemitism has no place in the UK, it backed up its words with action.
“Someone who has boasted of making tens of millions of dollars from selling swastika T-shirts and who released a song called ‘Heil Hitler’ just months ago, clearly would not be conducive to the public good in the UK.
“Wireless Festival, in its desperate quest for profit, defended the invitation until the end. That is shameful, and its sponsors should continue to stay away.”
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Kanye West should never have been invited to headline Wireless.
“This government stands firmly with the Jewish community, and we will not stop in our fight to confront and defeat the poison of antisemitism.
“We will always take the action necessary to protect the public and uphold our values.”
In January, West took out a full-page advert in The Wall Street Journal to apologise, titled: “To Those I’ve Hurt.”
“I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” it said. “I love Jewish people.”
In his letter, he said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month-long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life”.
