Racism Plagues French Parliament: Deputies of Color Face Daily Harassment and Threats

Deputies Carlos Martens Bilongo, Aly Diouara, Soumya Bourouaha, Sabrina Sebaihi... say they have been victims of racism. "My harassment started on the day of my investiture, and it hasn’t calmed down for a year," confides Aly Diouara (LFI). Two weeks ago, he shared on X a letter he had received. "It was of rare violence. Yet we receive emails and especially comments on social networks every day, but this one evokes slavery, cut off hands, it is threatening," sighs the deputy of the 5th constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis.

"Since when do slaves manage to integrate positions in France?, we can read at the beginning of this letter in a typewriter font. You don’t like the police, they’ll never come to your rescue. I can let off steam quietly, you won’t do anything. Just take your genealogy." His colleague Nadège Abomangoli (LFI, 10th constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis), vice-president of the National Assembly, received a similar letter. "A black woman has no place in this position," writes a certain ’Mr. Jourdain’ to her. Slavery has been abolished, but there are limits to feeling at ease."

"I told myself that this letter, in the current political context, there was an interest in making it public because it embodies the liberation of racist speech," points out the deputy. The elected official confesses "ambiguous feelings. Because at the same time, I told myself: it annoys them, so it’s good. The tears of racists are still pleasing." The two Insoumis have filed a complaint. The LFI deputy of Val-d’Oise, Carlos Martens Bilongo, is not spared either. "I receive insults every day. These people have understood that this racist harassment prevents racialized deputies from doing their work peacefully," he explains.

Sabrina Sebaihi (Les Écologistes, 4th constituency of Hauts-de-Seine) prefers to systematically take screenshots, file them in a thick folder, before filing grouped complaints or reports on Pharos. She remembers the first paper letter she received at the National Assembly, in July 2022. It was a threatening letter. "Every time I post on social networks, the most recurring comments are ’French on paper’, ’go back home’, ’remigration’... Sometimes it goes further, like ’All in the Seine.’" Soumya Bourouaha (PCF, 4th constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis) also receives them. "I avoid reading them, because it’s demoralizing. It touches me but really deeply. I didn’t steal my place, I was elected. We’re not here by chance," insists the elected official of Algerian origin.

It has become an increasingly uninhibited racism. "People are no longer afraid of justice," points out Sabrina Sebaihi. "Threatening parliamentarians, making racist remarks, no longer seems to them a crime. It has been trivialized by political figures at the highest level," she believes, targeting in particular Éric Zemmour or the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau. All these elected officials are especially surprised by the timidity of the political reactions on the subject. "Do parliamentarians, because they are Black or Maghrebi, have to be attacked or killed for there to be a reaction?" even wonders Sabrina Sebaihi.

Aly Diouara is outraged: "When I see the timidity of the institutional reactions, I tell myself that these people are crazy to let this pass. It’s an open door for everything else. The condemnation of violence cannot be variable geometry." His Insoumise colleague from Seine-Saint-Denis, Nadège Abomangoli, justifies the relative silence on the left by a certain embarrassment on the subject. "With the strategy of the ’fâchés pas fachos’ (those who are angry but not fascists, who consider that the RN vote is not mainly a vote of adherence), the left refuses to confront the obstacle of the racist dimension of the Rassemblement national vote."