Algerian Mehdi Ghezzar dismissed by RMC after his comments on Azoulay and Morocco

The entrepreneur and now former Algerian columnist for RMC, Mehdi Ghezzar, has triggered an avalanche of reactions in Morocco and France after comments made about Morocco and the king's advisor, André Azoulay.

The columnist for RMC's "Grandes gueules" quickly found himself in the eye of the storm.

Mehdi Ghezzar is an example of an Algerian who integrates and succeeds in France. Over the past ten years, he has only grown in power in both business and the media, gaining a great reputation thanks to his regular participation as a columnist on the set of the famous show "Les Grandes gueules" broadcast on RMC.

But his life is now in danger of changing in France. Because of comments he made not on RMC but on an Algerian public media outlet.

Invited on Sunday, August 25, to a program on the Algerian public channel Al24 News hosted by Salim Aggar, Mehdi Ghezzar literally let loose when talking about Morocco. Even if, it must be said in his defense, his words were somewhat distorted by an edit taken from who knows where.

In the video that is buzzing on the internet, we can hear Mehdi Ghezzar comparing the neighboring country to the series "Narcos" broadcast on the Netflix platform, where "there is everything".

"You want to steal a child, there are some, you want to rape a child, there are some, you want to buy drugs, there are some, you want prostitution, there is some", he listed, deducing that "it is anything but a Muslim country".

"Morocco has been trying to interfere for a while, it's just small, but it's at the country level, by size and by their government," he added, about Morocco, whose governance, he estimated, is "placed under foreign tutelage.

The full passage, without editing, highlights that Mehdi Ghezzar literally said: "If you enter sites that talk about various crimes in Morocco, you feel like you're at Narcos...". "Morocco is sometimes compared to the Thailand of Africa," he said again on the set.

Among the grievances he held against the kingdom, the ban, "by royal decree" on showing support for the people of Gaza. Salim Aggar, director of Al24 News and host of the show, then intervened to emphasize that the real initiator of this decree was Mohamed VI's advisor, André Azoulay, who, specifies another guest on the set, "has the nationality of the Zionist State".

Algerian Mehdi Ghezzar fired by RMC after comments on Morocco and André Azoulay

It is undoubtedly this passage on André Azoulay that sank the Algerian columnist in France, the accusation of anti-Semitism being ready.

Mehdi Ghezzar found himself under fire from critics and attacks, his comments also occurring in a context of rapprochement between France and Morocco. On social networks, the Algerian entrepreneur is lynched by Moroccan Internet users.

In France, Éric Ciotti, a great friend of Morocco, did not let the opportunity pass to sink him.

The president of the Republicans who joined the National Rally during the last legislative elections, expressed his "total support for André Azoulay", "shamefully attacked by Mehdi Ghezzar on an Algerian media".

"His anti-Semitic remarks are unacceptable and despicable," added Ciotti, calling on RMC to "immediately suspend this columnist who also made infamous remarks against the Kingdom of Morocco."

Eric Ciotti was quickly heard since this Wednesday, August 28, through a press release read on air, the channel's management announced the end of its collaboration with the columnist.

"Following the unacceptable remarks made by Mehdi Ghezzar on a foreign television channel, the management of RMC and Les Grandes Gueules have decided to end Mehdi Ghezzar's participation in the show," said Alain Marschall, one of the show's hosts, adding that he and his colleagues "dissociate themselves from these remarks made in a personal capacity."

Mehdi Ghezzar has had a meteoric rise in France. Having started in 2013 in the luxury interior design sector, he now finds himself at the head of a group comprising several companies in various fields, from catering to automobiles, including real estate. He also gained great notoriety by participating as a columnist in the show "Les Grandes Gueules" on RMC.

Interviewed in early August by TSA, Mehdi Ghezzar considered that Algeria has not lost influence in France, but it has lost time. "Yes, we have lost time, that is a fact, but we have not lost influence, because when you are the first migratory force in a foreign country, you have an influence that is certain and that is lasting," he said.