French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin defended his accusation that Karim Benzema has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, saying the star footballer's "selective" social media posts suggested he was hiding something.
Darmanin, a tough-talking right-winger with presidential ambitions, charged last week when Benzema posted his support for Gaza people amid Israel's onslaught.
The bombings were in response to an attack by Palestinian Hamas terrorists who broke into Israel from Gaza on October 7 and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, while capturing 222 more.
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According to the most recent Gaza health ministry toll, more than 6,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli retaliation strikes across the Gaza Strip.
Darmanin described Benzema, the French international forward now playing in Saudi Arabia, as having "extraordinary societal responsibility" because of his celebrity and social media following.
"You might wonder why the interior minister reacts to a footballer's tweet, but when he touches 20 million people, I think it's my role to denounce that," Darmanin told a group of French community leaders in Abu Dhabi.
"Because you might wonder what a footballer is doing tweeting a political opinion, and when he does it, he does it selectively."
Darmanin said last week that Benzema "has a notorious link with the Muslim Brotherhood," a Sunni Muslim Islamist group with origins in Egypt, after Benzema wrote on X, formerly Twitter, his prayers for the "victims of these unjust bombings."Darmanin stated that he had "nothing against" Benzema but found it "astonishing" that the footballer had not tweeted in support of the Israelis slain in the Hamas attack or the French teacher stabbed to death earlier this month by an Islamist former student.
Earlier this year, Benzema, a Muslim, signed a lucrative contract with Al-Ittihad in Jeddah, the gateway to the holy city of Mecca.
The current Ballon d'Or winner, 35, was scheduled to speak at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh earlier on Wednesday, but his presence was canceled.
