Honourary rally comes a day earlier than France heads to the polls within the first spherical of the snap elections with racism taking centrestage within the vote.
A 12 months after a French teenager with North African roots was killed by a policeman, his mom led a march to pay homage to her son that ended on the scene the place he was gunned down with out provocation.
A number of hundred relations, mates, and supporters gathered within the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Saturday to recollect Nahel Merzouk, 17, who was shot useless at point-blank vary by a police officer at a visitors cease on June 27, 2023 – a killing that sparked shock and days of rioting throughout France.
His mom, Mounia, spoke to the group, then broke away in tears. Buddies wore white T-shirts with Merzouk’s photograph and residents of his housing mission held a banner studying “Justice for Nahel”.
The march ended on the spot the place he was killed and an imam sang and browse a prayer. Whereas there was no seen police presence, organisers recruited guards to make sure safety for the occasion.
The procession got here at a politically fraught time when hate speech blights campaigning for snap parliamentary elections on Sunday. And when an anti-immigration occasion – that desires to spice up police powers to make use of their weapons and has historic ties to racism and anti-Semitism – is main within the polls.
Merzouk’s mom requested politicians to keep away from the march to keep away from tensions. “I don’t have Nahel any extra. I simply need justice for my son,” she informed the group.
Assa Traore, 39, who has fought for justice since her brother, Adama, died in police custody in 2016, mentioned, “This march is a strong image”.
“It implies that historical past can’t write itself with out us. We, from the working-class neighbourhoods, are the firsthand victims of those elections. We realised from an early stage the National Rally and far-right parties had been a hazard for our nation and can weaken it,” mentioned Traore, who has roots in Mali.
‘Racial profiling is our each day life’
Reporting from Naterre, Al Jazeera’s Berard Smith famous, “Nahel’s demise fed a story that French police use extreme power and get away with it. The workplace of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights mentioned the capturing was a ‘second for the nation to noticeably tackle the deep problem of racism and racial discrimination in regulation enforcement’.”
On Sunday, French voters head to the polls within the first spherical of voting for the Nationwide Meeting, the decrease home of parliament, which might result in the nation’s first far-right authorities for the reason that World Conflict II Nazi occupation.
Citing “safety issues”, notably in housing tasks and different impoverished areas in French suburbs – or “banlieues” – the far-right Nationwide Rally (RN) occasion needs to provide a particular new authorized standing to police.
If cops use weapons throughout an intervention, they might be “presumed” to have acted in self-defence. Presently, cops share the identical authorized standing as all French residents, and should show they acted in self-defence after discharging a firearm.
In the meantime, the left-wing coalition New In style Entrance needs to ban the usage of some police weapons and dismantle a notoriously violent police unit.
“Individuals worry a victory of the RN occasion. Individuals from working-class neighbourhoods are afraid each day that our sons, brothers, or husbands can be killed. Racism and racial profiling are our each day life,” Traore mentioned.
‘Conflicting loyalties’
On Friday, the RN confronted new accusations of racism with a senior parliamentarian declaring a former training minister of Moroccan descent ought to by no means have gotten the job due to her origins.
Lawmaker Roger Chudeau declared that Najat Vallaud-Belkacem’s appointment to the training portfolio in 2014 was “not a superb factor” for France, saying her French and Moroccan citizenship meant she had “conflicting loyalties”.
The incidents have completed little to dent the recognition of the Nationwide Rally, nevertheless.
Opinion polls counsel the RN occasion might dominate the next parliament after the July 7 second spherical of voting and safe the prime minister’s place. In that situation, Macron would retain the presidency till 2027 however in a sharply weakened function.