Comedian Dieudonne, whose trademark gesture, the quenelle, has drawn severe criticism for being anti-Jewish, will pay fines incurred for defamation and hate speech, the French interior minister, Manuel Valls, has vowed.
Valls, speaking on a radio show on Friday, said he would ensure that Dieudonne, 47, would have to pay the $88,500 he had run up in fines, and would try to legally block performances by a man he branded a “little trader of hate”.
Since 2000, Dieudonne has been fined seven times for defamation, using insulting language, hate speech and racial discrimination.
Dieudonne’s inverted down-arm salute made headlines again this week after his friend, French football striker Nicolas Anelka, used it to celebrate a goal in England. The on-field sign sparked a media storm and Anelka agreed not to repeat it.
The comic insists the gesture is not anti-Jewish and merely reflects his anti-establishment views.
“I think 2014 will be the year of the quenelle,” Dieudonne said in a video posted this week on YouTube. In that video, Dieudonne also denied he is anti-Jewish.
“There’s a misunderstanding. I don’t say I won’t be one day. I leave that possibility open.’