By Juliette Jabkhiro and Layli Foroudi
PARIS, Oct 29 (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron has accused far-right politicians including in Marine Le Pen’s National Rally of fostering an “atmosphere of racism” across France, days after a racially motivated killing in a Paris suburb.
The attack last Friday, which left one dead and seven wounded, has unleashed a bitter debate over racism in French politics and the media as the country grapples with a broad set of social grievances, months ahead of a presidential election.
“There are political movements which have led to … a kind of disinhibition of speech, an ambient racism,” Macron told YouTube influencer Hugo Decrypte in a lengthy interview released late on Wednesday.
He cited the National Rally and “those close to it” as responsible — a statement quickly rejected by members of the anti-immigration party that is leading in polls.
RN lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy told TF1: “It’s Macron who has run France for the past nine years. It’s on his watch that antisemitism, homophobia and hate has spread through France. He is to blame.”
‘WORDS CARRY WEIGHT’
French politicians on all sides have traded accusations of racism in the wake of the killing of 26-year-old Pengo Bossio Wangi in Trappes, a culturally diverse town 20 km (15 miles) southwest of Paris.
Anti-terrorist prosecutors said on Thursday the 39-year-old suspect, named Kevin T, acknowledged during questioning seeking victims of “African or Muslim type”. His belongings included a copy of Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” and stickers mentioning the RN — though he said he did not support any particular party.
RN senator Edwige Diaz this week doubled down on comments by Jordan Bardella, now the party’s leader, who in 2021 called Trappes a “mini-Islamic state”. She said there was nothing wrong in that description.
“We can speak of a somewhat toxic climate in which certain people are constantly portrayed as suspicious or illegitimate,” said Zineb Alami, lawyer for Bossio Wangi’s father.
“Words carry weight,” she said.
Numerous politicians on the right, including Bardella, and media commentators have blamed the rioting and looting that took place after street protests this month on immigration, without giving evidence. At a march in memory of Bossio Wangi on Sunday, people in attendance blamed the media coverage for inciting racial hatred.
Macron’s minority centrist government also stands accused of not doing enough to tackle the spread of racist and far-right attitudes in society.
“The normalisation of the ideas of the far-right extends beyond the National Rally into the ranks of the government,” sociologist Solene Brun told Reuters.
Aurore Berge, the minister for gender equality and anti-discrimination, was urged in parliament this week to take back her comment last month that it was legitimate to discuss the “Great Replacement”, a far-right conspiracy theory that has been invoked by perpetrators of far-right attacks around the world in recent years.
In addition to the Trappes attack, far-right activists looking for confrontations with protesters were spotted across more than a dozen French cities last week, according to authorities.
(Writing and reporting by Layli Foroudi, Juliette Jabkhiro, Mark John; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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