French Journalist Mohamed Bouhafsi Faces Wave of Racist Abuse on Social Media

"The Maghrebis and Africans will never integrate with us", "Soon it’s the end of France for b******s like you!", "Dirty Arab", "scum". These are some of the racist comments that Internet users have addressed to Mohamed Bouhafsi and that he relayed on Tuesday in his Instagram story. The "C à vous" journalist on France 5 denounces these insults targeting his origins, which occur in a context of political tensions and a few days before the first round of the early legislative elections scheduled for June 30.

Karim Rissouli, presenter of the program "C ce soir" on France Télévisions, also revealed on Tuesday having received an anonymous racist letter at his home. "The only and sole reason for voting for the RN is that the historic French people are fed up with all these b***** (racist insult against Arabs, editor’s note), the rest is just blah-blah," can be read in the letter published by the journalist on Instagram. The journalist warns of the risk that "racist speech is being released".

"Whatever the political parties we vote for today, we must collectively remember - whether we are journalists or politicians - that racism is not an opinion but a crime. And the things we say in public debate can sometimes have consequences, which can be serious consequences," Karim Rissouli said in statements to Brut.

The victory of the National Rally (RN) in the European elections on June 9 with 31.47% of the vote led Emmanuel Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and organize early legislative elections on June 30 and July 7. The RN of Jordan Bardella and some Republicans of Éric Ciotti have allied for these elections. The left-wing parties have done the same by creating the New Popular Front.