RN Deputy’s Aide Accused of Racist Remarks at Paris Bar, Victims File Complaint

Of Moroccan origin, Younès (pseudonym), 35, and Nora and Inès (pseudonym), 36, tell Street Press that they were victims of racist remarks on Wednesday, July 17, while they were having a drink on the terrace of the Rosa Bonheur sur Seine, located just steps from the Invalides and the National Assembly. Julie Gahinet was sitting just behind their table with her friends. The tables were close together and it was difficult to move around. A friend of Julie Gahinet would have elbowed Inès, asking her to push her "big butt". Later, a girl and a boy join Julie Gahinet’s table, which led to new disputes.

"Watch out, the girl behind you is taking up all the space," the friend of Julie Gahinet would have said. And the latter to add: "Anyway, you’re not even real French." The three Franco-Moroccans specify that they did not know Gahinet’s identity at the time of the events. Younès confides that, in a fit of anger, the parliamentary collaborator would have told them: "You don’t even speak French." The young man says he reacted by affirming that he is indeed French. But Gahinet retorted: "You are not real French, I am French, blonde with blue eyes," before adding: "Get out, the French don’t want French like you." "It’s the French who don’t want French like you," Inès would have said. "After the body shaming, the racism, bravo, you can be proud of yourself," Nora would have replied.

The trio calls the venue’s security. But the parliamentary collaborator "categorically denies" having made racist remarks. However, "two other customers, who had nothing to do with the victims, confirmed having heard these racist remarks," says the security manager in charge of the bar. Younès reports the incident to a gendarmerie patrol in charge of securing the Seine quays. In front of the agents, Julie Gahinet and her friends would have also denied the facts and accused the Moroccans of insulting them in Arabic. "It’s false but it’s also totally absurd. If we had spoken Arabic, how would she have known that they were insults?" Younès wonders.

Thanks to a photo of Julie Gahinet taken on the spot, the three young people manage to identify her on the Internet. A few days later, they file a complaint against her for "public insult against an individual on the grounds of his race, religion or origin." An offense punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. "At first, we are dealing with elbows, and insulting remarks, but what follows are racist remarks, both in intentionality and in materiality," explains Marion Jobert, the victims’ lawyer. For her part, Julie Gahinet "refutes" and "denies the racist accusations against her which are only fabrications." She reserves "the right to initiate legal proceedings for defamation."