The new mayor of Saint-Denis-Pierrefitte faces a wave of racism and pretend information | EUROtoday

One extra racist slip-up on CNews focusing on Bally Bagayoko. The new mayor of Saint-Denis-Pierrefitte – second largest metropolis in Île-de-France with practically 150,000 inhabitants – has been the topic of racist remarks and false info since his election, Sunday March 15, within the first spherical of the municipal elections. While these assaults passed off till now in nearly basic indifference, the Ministers of the Interior and Culture ended up reacting, Monday March 30, to defend the elected Dyonisian.

Bally Bagayoko, 52, was related Friday night on Vincent Bolloré’s far-right channel in an indication referring to “great apes” and “tribe chiefs”. Is this mayor “trying to push the limits?” asks the CNews presenter. “Surely there is a little of that. Now, it is important to remember that as homo sapiens, we are social mammals and of the great ape family. And therefore, in any community, in any 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.

Also learnThe mayor of Saint-Denis will file a criticism in opposition to CNews after feedback deemed racist

“I found these attacks despicable (…), we are here in France, it is the French Republic which recognizes all its children whatever their origin”, mentioned Monday morning on RTL the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nunez, including that he was “very shocked by these comments”. “We cannot have this kind of slippage. It is unacceptable,” he insisted.

Catherine Pgard, Minister of Culture, additionally condemned “despicable, unacceptable attacks”. “Freedom of expression cannot go against the rules of law, the rules of civility,” she added on France Inter, in reference to CNews, which makes freedom of expression its commonplace.

Official reactions condemning racism focusing on Bally Bagayoko which put an finish to a silence which had lasted for 2 weeks. At the identical time, the brand new mayor La France insoumise (LFI), from a household of Malian origin, identified the absence of a message of help from the President of the Republic. “What is more scandalous is that there is no condemnation (…) at the level of the Élysée, to bring greatness [de] what France is, which has always been first in line against racist remarks”, he regretted on France Inter.

Because the assaults started on the night of his election. Questioned on LCI a couple of hours after his victory and whereas the presenter evokes the historic previous of town of Saint-Denis by talking of “the city of kings”, Bally Bagayoko continues by affirming “the city of kings and living people”. An expression impressed by a textual content by the poet Jean Marcenac, a communist resistance fighter who turned a professor in Saint-Denis within the post-war interval, who depicted Saint-Denis as town of “dead kings and living people.”

See additionally“Saint Denis, city of blacks”: story of a pretend information story

But far-right X accounts rapidly circulated false info: Bally Bagayoko would have responded “the city of blacks”. It was sufficient for this “fake news” to be taken up by the proper, then quickly by conventional media, like BFMTV/RMC, Franceinfo or France 5.

“These controversies are a new illustration of the liberation of racist speech and of a media system that goes on a loop. What happens and is said on CNews now has a resonance well beyond its viewers alone since it is then taken up on BMFTV and other channels and everyone is obliged to react. However, the election of Bally Bagayoko, like those of other mayors of immigrant origin, is logical given the evolution of the population of these cities. We could even wonder why we had to wait so long”, underlines Vincent Tiberj, specialist in electoral sociology and creator specifically of “French rightisation: myth and realities” (PUF, 2024).

“A government that allows its agenda to be dictated by the far right”

Tuesday, March 17, it was the flip of the editorial director of the far-right journal Valeurs Acteurs, Tugdual Denis, to affirm on BFMTV that Bally Bagayoko was supported by the drug traffickers of Saint-Denis, taking on accusations launched in the course of the marketing campaign by the outgoing socialist mayor Mathieu Hanotin and by an article in Le Canard chainé.

Response from Bally Bagayoko, to whom the editorialist has simply requested “Whose hand are you in?” : “There is an organized cabal [qui] fits with who I am: Bally Bagayoko, a child heir to immigration, and therefore it fits with the fact that he is necessarily linked to drug traffickers.”

Then it was his mission for the gradual disarmament of the municipal police, beginning initially with ball protection throwers (LBD), which was the topic of a brand new controversy. Questioned by CNews in entrance of the city corridor, Tuesday March 24, the brand new councilor declared: “The civil servants are above all individuals who the truth is reply to a political order. (…) Those who, for lots of causes which may concern them elsewhere, usually are not in part with the political mission, inevitably, they’ll go away. But it’s not the truth that we’ll throw them out, it’s as a result of they’ll perform a mobility which is totally pure and which isn’t one thing new.”

The distortion of his phrases is speedy. The concept that Bally Bagayoko wish to do away with territorial brokers who usually are not in part with its motion is spreading like wildfire on social networks and the media within the Bolloré sphere (CNews, Europe 1, JDD).

Two days later, a name to order from the federal government got here within the type of a letter despatched to the newly elected by David Amiel, Minister of Action and Public Accounts.

“No municipal authority can legally suggest that the situation of municipal agents, their assignment or their retention in office could depend on their adherence, real or supposed, to the political orientations of the municipal executive,” underlines David Amiel. The minister recollects in his letter that any resolution “to dismiss an agent for political reasons would be tainted by illegality and could be suspended or canceled by the administrative judge”, including that such mobilities may “result in moral harassment” and even represent potential legal offenses.

“We unfortunately have a government which allows its agenda to be dictated by the far right, regrets Vincent Tiberj. There is a strategy which aims to occupy the media field and media attention. The time you spend in Saint-Denis, you do not spend it on social issues, on ecology, on inequalities, on housing or on education. We understand the interest of the far right in acting like this, but it becomes more embarrassing when it is taken up by ministers. And it is all the more more troubling that they think they are right, which shows the level of disconnection of certain parties with working-class neighborhoods.”

“Indignations with variable geometry” by Emmanuel Macron

These racist assaults and the proliferation of false info focusing on Bally Bagayoko – who introduced that he was submitting a criticism in opposition to CNews and the group of a rally, Saturday April 4, in opposition to “racism and discrimination” – are additionally a part of a broader post-election sequence, marked by accusations of verbal assaults suffered by a number of outgoing mayors of working-class cities.

Heated scenes had been notably filmed in a number of city halls gained by LFI or varied left-wing candidates in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), Creil (Oise), Vaulx-en-Velin (Rhône), Le Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis) or Mantes-La-Jolie (Yvelines). We see overwhelmed mayors being booed and generally insulted. However, no bodily violence was reported.

These movies had been broadly used on social networks by far-right or close-to-far-right accounts and by the Bolloré media. And in contrast to the racist remarks focusing on Bally Bagayoko, they rapidly provoked the indignation of many political leaders, together with that of Emmanuel Macron, who declared within the Council of Ministers that there was “no possible sedition in the communes of the Republic”.

Also learnMunicipal elections 2026: everybody has their very own victorious story, eyes turned in the direction of 2027

“Talking about sedition shows that Emmanuel Macron has no idea of the level of political polarization in these cities. What we saw were residents who were often victims of social violence who were exultant, whereas usually they are invisible in the debates,” analyzes the sociologist, who additionally factors out “the double standards” of the pinnacle of state who was not moved by the racism focusing on Bally Bagayoko or the demise threats made. by the outgoing Les Républicains (LR) mayor of Blanc-Mesnil, Thierry Meignen.

The latter declared, relating to the journalist Nassira El Moaddem, creator of an investigative e book on her two mandates on the head of town: “I am going to have her convicted of defamation. I am going to whip her. I will go to the end, she will die, I will kill her”, in line with feedback reported on March 23 by Le Monde.

“It is extremely unfortunate for political leaders to have outrages of variable geometry. But this is not the first time. We hold minutes of silence for some and not for others, observes Vincent Tiberj. There is a right-wing of French society which is happening from above, in the way in which we prioritize an agenda, certain themes and the way in which we talk about them. It is a danger because these ways of thinking have gone far beyond the far right and CNews. There is a form of contagion in the media field as well as in the political field.”