Dieudonné with the French fascist Alain Soral; their new alliance has been roundly condemned by former allies of the anti-Semitic comedian. Photo: Twitter

Dieudonné M’Bala M’bala, the anti-Semitic French provocateur infamous for devising the “quenelle,” an inverted Nazi salute, as well as his frequent mocking of the Nazi Holocaust, is again in trouble with the French authorities after he declared his admiration for Amedy Coulibaly, the Islamist terrorist who murdered four French Jews during the siege at the HyperCacher market in eastern Paris last Friday.

In a statement on his Facebook page after the unity rally in Paris attended by 1.5 million people, Dieudonné poked fun at the “Je Suis Charlie” meme that has circulated on social media since last Wednesday’s massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. “As far as I am concerned, I feel I am Charlie Coulibaly,” Dieudonné wrote.

As a result of that post, which has now been removed, Dieudonné is now the subject of an investigation by the Paris prosecutors office. The investigation for “defending terrorism” was opened on Monday, said Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor.

While supporters of Dieudonné will no doubt highlight the irony of a criminal investigation into a Facebook post at a time when France has united around the concept of free speech, that may not be enough to shore up the French-Cameroonian comedian’s flagging political fortunes. As The Algemeiner reported last month, Dieudonné has found himself on the receiving end of severe criticism from former supporters who resent his ties to Alain Soral, a white French fascist with whom he founded a new political party, Réconciliation Nationale, last month.

The campaign against Dieudonné is being led by one of his former bodyguards, Jérémie Maradas-Nado, alias Jo Dalton, a former leader of the Black Dragons, a gang which defended black people from attacks by white skinheads in the 1990s. Commenting on the political relationship between Dieudonné and Soral, Dalton said: “At first I told myself that these guys were breaking new ground – that they were courageous. Then I saw more and more people with shaven heads and swastikas. By allying himself with fascists, Dieudonné has betrayed the black cause.”