French comedian banned from Uccle gig will perform in Saint-Gilles

French comedian Guillaume Meurice, who was banned from performing at the Cultural Centre of Uccle (CCU), will be allowed to put on a show in Saint-Gilles.

Meurice was fired from France Inter, a radio station belonging to Radio France, after making a controversial joke about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The joke led to accusations of anti-Semitism and a complaint. While the complaint was not followed up, Meurice was suspended pending a sanction or even dismissal.

Radio France unions and the editorial staff of France Inter urged management not to dismiss Meurice and even held strikes, disrupting programming. But Meurice was ultimately dismissed for "serious misconduct".

The comedian is now at the helm of the political programme La Dernière on Radio Nova and was scheduled to appear at the Uccle cultural centre in the 2024-2025 season with ‘Vers l'Infini’, a show he wrote with astrophysicist Eric Lagadec about human stupidity.

While CCU had been the ones to approach Meurice with the gig, it has now cancelled the performance, with chair Olivia Bodson citing "risks of disturbing public order" and fears of a political "label" in light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bodson denies any form of censorship.

Uccle’s PS party is calling the cancellation "unacceptable political interference" by mayor Boris Dilliès (MR). According to internal sources, the director of the cultural centre acted under pressure from the municipal council, which the chair denies.

“It's not censorship, but it has the taste, the look and the smell of censorship,” Brussels MP John Pitseys (Ecolo) said, accusing the MR party of “shouting itself hoarse about the politicisation of culture, but trampling on the director of a cultural centre”.

Meanwhile, the Jacques Franck Cultural Centre in Saint-Gilles has announced that it is willing to host Guillaume Meurice's show instead.

“Respect for pluralism and democratic values is one of the fundamental principles that we want to defend with our cultural policy in Saint-Gilles,” said culture alderman Francesco Iammarino.

The case will be discussed by the CCU's board of directors in the coming weeks.