The warnings follow one another and are similar, chilling foretastes of what could happen in a few weeks. Secours Catholique, SOS-Racisme, Licra and the Human Rights League have all noted an increase in racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic violence, whether verbal or physical, in public spaces. And this has been the case since the European elections. For some voters, the successes of the National Rally seem to act like a disinhibiting alcohol, authorising the most abject behaviour. Faced with what is perceived as a legitimisation of a certain point of view by the ballot boxes and by society, we “let go” more easily. Until the worst.
Racist insults are flying more than ever on social networks; we hear, live on a television set, that dual-nationality ministers would not be “desirable”; campaign posters claim to want to “give a future to white children”; French citizens, on camera, ask a black nursing assistant to go “back to the doghouse”.
Through mimicry, a feeling of omnipotence, the joy of victory – or all three at the same time – the racism hidden in some French people is coming out of hiding. It was repressed, it is becoming acceptable, including in public. Not all voters of the National Rally are xenophobic. But this important nuance should not make us forget another reality, which has been obvious to us for several days: xenophobes have long recognized in the National Rally the party that suits them.