Race row supporter quits UMP party

A UMP supporter who unwittingly rose to prominence after a race row has quit the party, blaming Nicolas Sarkozy's divisive policies on national identity.

Amine Benalia-Brouch, whose meeting with the Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux last year became a national scandal when the minister said: "You always get one, when there’s one it’s OK, it’s when there are a lot of them you get problems.”

The minister later said he was referring to Mr Benalia-Brouch as an Auvergnat, having been photographed with several that day, but a court later fined him €750 and ordered him to pay €2000 damages to an anti-racism group.

Mr Benalia-Brouch, who spoke out in support of Hortefeux during the scandal, told newspaper Le Parisien : "I've had it up to here with the government's policies.

"I had already had enough when they held the national identity debate, but with the Roms – that's the last straw."

He added: "I'm leaving the UMP, leaving Nicolas Sarkozy, without sadness but with great happiness.
"I detest these policies which just pit the French against one another to rule them."

He has opted to join the movement started recently by Sarkozy's opponent and former prime minister Dominique de Villepin.

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Photo: Amine Benalia-Brouch speaks in support of Brice Hortefeux on YouTube