“For two weeks, we have been witnessing a form of liberation of racist speech in public space and on continuous news channels,” underlines Julien Talpin, research director in political science at the CNRS, specialist in working-class neighborhoods. These forms of racism are “unfortunately not new”, according to him. He cites in particular the cases of the former Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira, victim of racism on the part of the far right, or of Danièle Obono, LFI deputy for Paris. In the last municipal elections, a flood of insults and threats also fell on councilors from immigrant backgrounds, as in Givors or Stains, a town in Seine-Saint-Denis where the PCF mayor Azzedine Taibi received an envelope containing feces.
“We have been witnessing a diversification of political personnel for at least twenty years, but there is a particular intensity of racist reactions during these municipal elections, which is perhaps due to the fact that elected officials with an immigrant background reach the positions of mayor and no longer just deputies or councilors,†analyzes Julien Talpin, citing Sarcelles, Le Blanc-Mesnil or La Courneuve. Among the elected officials targeted, he also mentions the case of an LFI elected official from the opposition in Villiers-sur-Marne, accused of having remained seated when the Marseillaise was sung, or of Bassi Konaté whose election in Sarcelles been compared to the “great replacement” of the Socialist Party by the newspaper “Le JDD”.
“Democratic Revenge”
According to the sociologist, the LFI label plays a role as a catalyst for attacks. “There is a particular intensity linked to LFI, which obviously divides a lot,” underlines Julien Talpin, especially since Saint-Denis is the first city of more than 100,000 inhabitants conquered by the party. On Thursday, La France insoumise also announced that several of its black deputies had received a “negrophobic” letter, “diverting a page from “Tintin in the Congo”” and depicting “black people from dehumanized and primitive manner.”
Criticism from the far right also focused on the voters themselves. “Their reaction on election night was an opportunity to convey racist clichés, with a form of consubstantial barbarity which would be expressed during scenes of jubilation whose violence was largely overinterpreted,” underlines Julien Talpin. Paradoxically, the municipal elections mobilized much more people in these cities than in 2020. “It is a sort of small sociological and political miracle to succeed in reducing abstention in territories where disenchantment with politics is extremely deep, and it is also a form of democratic revenge.” “, analyzes the sociologist.
Propos “despicable and unacceptable”
Among the attacks, Julien Talpin also points out a very “biologizing, animalizing” analysis of Bally Bagayoko’s first steps. “We know that anti-Black racism retains its original dimension of biological racism and these prejudices can remain in the imagination,” he continues. On Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuez described the comments targeting Bally Bagayoko on CNews as “despicable” and “absolutely unacceptable.” The president of the Association of Mayors of France David Lisnard did not condemn the racist attacks targeting the new councilors.
