PARIS: Controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq was placed under formal investigation on Tuesday on suspicion of complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence, a source close to the case told AFP.
Houellebecq, 70, is arguably France’s most famous writer internationally, but has grown increasingly controversial as his pessimistic views on the decline of Western civilization are seen as aligning with the ascendant far-right.
The investigation concerns comments about Muslims published in 2022 in Front Populaire magazine.
In the interview with philosopher Michel Onfray, the author of “Submission” described Muslims as a threat to the security of French people.
“What the native French population, as they say, wants is not for Muslims to assimilate but for them to stop stealing from and attacking them,” Houellebecq said. “Or, alternatively, that they leave.”
He also warned of future “Bataclans in reverse” targeting Muslims, a reference to the jihadist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015.
In 2023, the Union of Mosques of France (UMF) filed a complaint against Houellebecq, Onfray and Front Populaire director Stephane Simon.
In a statement to AFP, the writer’s lawyers said Houellebecq’s statements contained no element of incitement.
“A prophet of doom does not wish for misfortune to occur, quite the contrary. His place is not in a courtroom,” Thibault de Montbrial and Louis Cailliez said.
