VIDEO Thousands of people protest against racism, near Paris, in a demonstration called by the mayor
Several thousand people demonstrated on Saturday against racism in Saint-Denis, near Paris, at the call of the new mayor, Bally Bagayoko, whose election has sparked a national debate on racial discrimination, reports AFP, according to Agerpres.
A large crowd demonstrated peacefully outside the town hall of the suburb, the second most populous in the Paris region after the capital.
The demonstration was attended by representatives of trade unions, associations and left-wing political leaders.
“We have come to affirm firmly and definitively our deep attachment to the values ​​of the Republic, embodied by those who are the heirs of immigration,” said Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) of this city of 150,000 inhabitants.
The Mali-born politician, the target of a hate campaign since his March 15 first-round victory at the head of a joint list between the LFI and the communists, denounced “dysfunctional institutions, sometimes even complicit.”
Speaking through a megaphone, the leader of the La France Insoumise party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, condemned “a sickening wave of racism emanating from the political and media elites who, without restraint or reservation, have shown their contempt for a segment of our population”.
Apart from Bagayoko, during the March municipal elections several candidates from immigrant families were elected mayors of cities with tens of thousands of inhabitants.
On March 27 and 28, on the CNews station owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bollore, comparisons were made between Bagayoko and the “family of great primates”, with the mayor being accused of exhibiting a “dominant male” attitude.
On Saturday, the mayor denounced French President Emmanuel Macron's silence on the issue, which he said only “confirms his lack of commitment” to combating racism.
According to Bagayoko, “those who today reduce this march only to the label of La France Insoumise are wrong and unworthy of this struggle, which is a struggle against racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination.”
On Thursday, the Paris prosecutor's office announced it had opened an investigation into “public insult motivated by origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion” following a complaint filed by the elected official.
CNews said it “officially denies that racist remarks were made” on its channel.
