Solene Delinger
modified to
09:01, January 05, 2023
It’s a little phrase that caused a huge outcry… In an interview given to Parisian on the occasion of the release of his new film Skirmishers, Omar Sy said: “L’Ukraine was not a crazy revelation for me. As I have family elsewhere, in Africa, I know that there have always been children at war, broken families. It means that when it’s in Africa, you are less affected”.
“Some French people gave their lives so that Malians would stop being threatened by terrorists”
These remarks made certain political leaders jump, in particular the MEP Nathalie Loiseau. “There are 58 French soldiers who died in the Sahel fighting against the jihadists. No, Omar Sy, the French are not ‘less affected’ by what is happening ‘in Africa’. Some gave their lives so that the Malians stop being threatened by terrorists,” she said on her Twitter account.
And, she is not the only one to be indignant at the statements of the actor, which caused a lot of reaction on the news channels. “Omar Sy, an illegitimate indignation?”, “Omar Sy, l’ingrat of Los Angeles”“Wars in Africa: Omar Sy is debating”, could we read on some banners.
“I refuse to justify myself”
Faced with the controversy, Omar therefore had to dot the “i” during his stay on the show. Daily, Tuesday, January 3. “People who can read understand what I meant,” he replied ironically at first, before becoming more serious.
“It’s not really what I say that is the problem, but what I am (…) I refuse to justify myself because I owe nothing to anyone, I am French! »
Omar Sy returns to the controversy surrounding his interview for Le Parisien in #Dailypic.twitter.com/n9fdRJ6ohu
— Daily (@Qofficiel) January 3, 2023
“In fact, there is a system in place and every time I come out of my little hiding place with my little beard, people come to me for controversy, stuff, so that I can go into explanations. I have don’t want”, he explained in front of Yann Barthès. “What I said, I said. Understand whoever wants to and if you want to understand something else, understand something else (…) What is clear is not what I am saying that ‘we attack Yann, it’s me”, assures Omar Sy before concluding: “What I said, I said it. I think it and I assume it. What I refuse to do is is to justify myself. Because I owe nothing to anyone, I am French”.