France’s Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was captured on camera making a racist remark at the UMP’s summer conference in Seignosse, in south-west France. A ministry from President Nicholas Sarkozy’s conservative (by French standards) party, Hortefeux was greeting party supporters alongside a young UMP activist of Algerian-Portuguese heritage. Hortefeux then casually remarks in apparent reference to the young activist, “There always has to be one. When there’s one, it’s OK. It’s when there are a lot of them that there are problems.”

French paper-of-record Le Monde then posted the video on its website. This immediately stirred an outrage with the opposition Socialist party calling for Hortefeux’s resignation and several anti-discrimination groups joining the protest. “The question is not even whether he should resign, but how he could possibly remain part of the government,” stated Socialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon. While Socialist party leader Martine Aubry said she was “shocked and dismayed” by the words.

Hortefeux defended himself against the accusation stating that he made “no reference to any ethnic origin, be it North African, Arab, African or other,” and that his words were simply in response to people whom wanted to take photos with him. “I was in a hurry to leave,” the minister added.

The young activist, 22-year-old Amine Benalia-Brouch, came to the minister’s defense and stated that he believed his explanation. “If the remarks were racist I would have responded because they would have amounted to a personal attack,” stated Benalia-Brouch. He went on to post an online video further defending Hortefeux.

Hortefeux’s explanation could seem plausible if the tape did not include the preceding minutes: “There always has to be one” photo, but “when there are a lot” of requests for a photo then “there are problems.” Alas, for Hortefeux the tape clearly shows that the remarks were in a racist and condescending tone about Benalia-Brouch. Individuals were joking that Benalia-Brouch is atypical among French Muslims because he indulges in such “virtues” as eating pork and drinking wine. Benalia-Brouch seemed unshaped by the comments and it was then that Hortefeux states that one is okay, but a lot is a “problem.” The evidence makes it clear that Hortefeux was being a racist, and his own subsequent explanation clumsily added that people were joking about his own Auvergne origin. Hortefeux is implying that he made those comments, but, in any case, it was fine because people were joking all-around about origins. But joking about French origin and Arab origin in France, a nation with widespread discrimination against Arabs, are two different matters. One is jovial, the other rooted in prejudice.

As for Benalia-Brouch’s defense: It should be obvious why a young party activist with ambitions would turn the other cheek and even defense his superior. Benalia-Brouch cannot alienate the Interior Minister by being (justifiably) indignant. And it would not only anger Hortefeux, but the entire UMP since the party has rallied to his defense.

Prime Minister François Fillon denounced what he called “a very scandalous campaign of denigration” against Hortefeux by a left, in the words of UMP secretary general Xavier Bertrand, “capable of anything” in an effort to undermine the party.

Le Monde defended the release of the video and added that it was not taken out of context.