Accused of racism by Manuel Bompard (LFI) on September 23, the new Minister of the Interior has distinguished himself in recent months by remarks linking immigration and insecurity in singular terms.
No sooner was he appointed than he was attacked. Bruno Retailleau’s first hours as Minister of the Interior were more eventful than he had surely hoped. The new tenant of Place Beauvau was in fact accused of racism on Monday, September 23, 2024 by the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard.
The cause is comments made by the former head of the LR senators, more than a year ago, after the urban violence that struck the French country following the death of young Nahel. A new controversy for the elected official from Vendée, after several media releases contested by the opposition and in particular the left for several years.
“Regression to ethnic origins”
In July 2023, then head of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau had made a link between the riots after the death of young Nahel and immigration, speaking then of “French on paper”. “It is in the neighborhoods where there are high migratory rates” that the riots take place, he explained on France Info, assuring to have “questioned many mayors” who “all tell you this”. He continued: “Certainly, they are French, but they are French by their identity and unfortunately for the second, the third generation, there is regression towards ethnic origins”.
Statements that had triggered a real outcry among elected officials on the left. “Crude racism from a president of a group in disarray who is Republican in name only,” deplored Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group in the National Assembly. “This is a racist statement. RIP the Republican right,” reacted Manuel Bompard, coordinator of La France insoumise.
The MP (LFI) Clémentine Autain spoke of “dripping racism” regarding the words used by the now Minister of the Interior. This Monday, September 23, 2024, Manuel Bompard rightly returned to the remarks of Bruno Retailleau, on Europe 1: “Of course, when we start to classify the French, when we start to consider that the regression towards ethnic origins, that is to say that there would be races that would be inferior, since we are talking about regression, yes, these are racist remarks”. A spanner in the works that perhaps already signals the return of trouble for the man who has just been appointed Place Beauvau in the Barnier government.
Riots: “We know the causes. Of course there is a link” with immigration, insists Bruno Retailleau. “For the second, the third generation, there is a sort of regression towards ethnic origins.” pic.twitter.com/1OAwvRgP2z
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) July 5, 2023
“I don’t regret anything at all, I don’t take anything away at all”
On July 5, 2023, Bruno Retailleau was questioned by Public Sénat as he left the chamber after his statements about “regressions towards ethnic origins”. The latter assured that he maintained “each of (his) terms (…) I do not regret anything at all, I do not take anything away at all. What I said is that in these neighborhoods, we can clearly see that kids, or teenagers, who are from immigrant backgrounds, are following a path that is the opposite of what is expected of them, that is to say, to completely integrate the republican model”, he stated. “Let’s stop repenting, because this perpetual repentance is a barrier that prevents these young people from completely assimilating to our republican model, which forgets origins, which forgets beliefs. It is the universal citizen rather than the individual with his particularities”, he regretted.
Colonization, “there were also times that were beautiful”
As a reminder, on September 12, 2023, Bruno Retailleau was also the author of controversial remarks concerning French colonization in Africa. “Colonization is of course hours that were dark, but it is also hours that were beautiful, with outstretched hands,” he explained on Sud Radio. A subject that came up after a discussion on Morocco’s “silence” in the face of the aid offered by France after the deadly earthquake in the Marrakech region.
On the left, this statement by the senator from Vendée was greeted with astonishment. The first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure saw it as a return to “the time when the white man brought civilization to natives who had not yet entered into History”. Sandrine Rousseau, EELV deputy, considered that “colonization was an invasion, a unilateral takeover of entire countries”.
Reactions that did not dissuade the main person concerned from maintaining his words and assuming them: “Not hiding anything from the excesses and errors of colonization, but also highlighting what France has brought that is positive: the schooling of children, access to health care”, constitutes for him the light to shed on colonization. “The manipulation of history is the worst way to build the future”, he had launched, on the subject of the reactions of the elected representatives of the different political forces of the left.
“No more expulsions are possible”
At the end of 2022, during a question and answer session with the government, RN MP Grégoire de Fournas sparked a heated controversy when he spoke about immigrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean Viking ship that came to their aid: “Let him go back to Africa,” he said after the intervention of black rebellious MP Carlos Bilongo. At the time, François-Xavier Bellamy refuted the racist nature of his remarks, before Bruno Retailleau followed suit: “No one can consider it racist to demand the return of illegal immigrants. Because if that is the case, the very idea of executing OQTFs is racist: no more expulsions are possible,” he wrote on his blog.
“With all due respect to the extreme left, which advocates national deconstruction, for 15 centuries France has been a promise to go beyond the origins of each person towards a nation that unites.“We are seeing a refusal of this promise among many young people from immigrant backgrounds and a return to ethnic or national ties outside France,” the new Interior Minister also declared.