“Despicable attacks”, “inadmissible”: the LFI mayor of Saint-Denis Bally Bagayoko received the support of the Ministers of the Interior and Culture on Monday, after having been the target of controversial remarks on CNews and racist comments since his election in the first round of municipal elections.
“I found these attacks despicable, we are here in France, it is the French Republic which recognizes all its children whatever their origin,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on RTL, adding: “I am very shocked by these comments.” “We can’t have this kind of slippage. This is unacceptable,” he insisted.
On France Inter, the Minister of Culture, Catherine Pgard, also condemned “despicable, unacceptable attacks”. “Freedom of expression cannot go against the rules of law, the rules of civility,” she added in reference to CNews, which makes freedom of expression its standard.
Macron’s silence
Bally Bagayoko, who intends to file a complaint, nevertheless regretted a few minutes earlier on the same channel the silence of Emmanuel Macron: “What is most scandalous is that there is no condemnation at the level of the Élysée, to represent the greatness of what France is, which has always been first in line against racist remarks.”
These condemnations from members of the government follow comments made on Friday on CNews, during a debate devoted to the first days in office of Bally Bagayoko, elected in the first round of municipal elections on March 15.
Is this mayor “trying to push the limits?” asks the presenter. “Surely there’s a bit of that. Now, it’s important to remember that homo sapiens, we are social mammals and part of the great ape family. And therefore, in every community, in every tribe – our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived in tribes – there is a leader whose mission is to establish his authority,” replied psychologist Jean Doridot on set.
In return, the head of LFI deputies Mathilde Panot denounced “crass and uninhibited” racism on X, seeing a comparison between Mr. Bagayoko and “a monkey and a tribal chief”. She announced that she would contact Arcom, the audiovisual and digital police, followed by other left-wing elected officials.
CNews contests all racism
On Saturday, the Bolloré group channel once again found itself at the heart of a controversy, after remarks by philosopher Michel Onfray attributing to Mr. Bagayoko the attitude of a “dominant male” for having called for “allegiance” after his election.
In a press release on Monday, CNews said it “formally contests that any racist remarks have been made” on its channel. The channel evokes extracts that are “truncated and taken out of context”, “practices” which according to it “participate in being used for polemical purposes”.
The MRAP (Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples) announced Monday that it would file a complaint, warning “of the worrying normalization of a discourse which reactivates deeply rooted racist patterns”.
The leader of SOS Racisme Dominique Sopo denounced to AFP on Saturday an “attack with obvious racist overtones”. “Having managed to put the terms monkey and tribe in almost the same sentence, we can clearly see that it refers to an imagination, which is also part of the almost official program that CNews has assigned itself in terms of the evolution of public debate in our country,” he added.
Open investigation
Arcom, also contacted by the MRAP and SOS Racisme, announced Monday that it would “investigate the sequences which were reported to it”.
Mr. Bagayoko announced a rally against “racism and discrimination” next Saturday in front of his town hall in order to “defend the Republic and its values of freedom, equality and fraternity” in the face of what he describes as “reactionary attacks”.
Born in Hauts-de-Seine, to Malian parents, Bally Bagayoko is also the target of numerous racist comments on social networks.
After his election, he had already been the recipient of a hate campaign relayed by the far right on the social network
