On June 27, 2023, young Nahel died, killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. A year later, Émilie Chaudet returned to Nanterre. The Authenti-cité association organized a large barbecue, an opportunity for participants to tell what had happened since Nahel’s death. But, given the political context, it was also the rise of the RN, and its potential rise to power, that was discussed during this gathering.
“And I tell myself that tomorrow, if the RN passes, how am I going to live?”
The first young man is 27 years old. With a few friends, he set up an association. The project: to combine sport and professional integration. He knew Nahel well and distinctly remembers the days following his death, “We received a lot of messages that criticized our parents for things, that criticized us for things”, “They called us bandits, thugs, they said that we were breaking everything”. If the RN were to govern France, the young man has no doubt, he would leave, “If the RN were to pass, we would be more on our guard and we would be targeted even more. And that will divide the country in two in fact. And now, we think of one thing, we think of just leaving France, we think of just expatriating ourselves, we don’t go out at home anymore”, “Me frankly, if I can go to North America, Australia, Asia or why not Maghreb, I would leave, eh”.
Hassan Krim is 20 years old. Since he came of age, he has voted, “In the last elections, I voted for France Insoumise”. When the results of the European elections were announced on June 9, Hassan was barely shocked, “We expected it, it’s always the same”. The young man, who is about to enter the job market, is already worried about the discrimination he will have to deal with, “And finding work afterwards is going to be a struggle. That’s already the case, but now it’s going to be really uncontrollable given that we come from a disadvantaged area for example, they’re going to lump things together a bit, they’re going to tell me that all young people are the same: not very active in their professional lives, troublemakers”, “And it’s the same for work, unless you work in catering or as a waiter where you quickly find work. But as soon as they’re jobs with responsibilities, then it’s harder to find”.
“For me, there is no debate to be had with a racist”
At 18 years old, Ayana remembers very well how she felt last June, after Nahel’s death, “I didn’t necessarily understand how the media covered it. No media used the word revolt. We talked about riots. Honestly, I felt misunderstood”. Today, Ayana is worried, and to try to counter the rise of the RN, she too is going to the polls, “Me, being a young Arab, black, Muslim woman, wearing the veil. In fact, they are against everything I represent and honestly, it scares me”. She too has already faced discrimination in the job market, “I have already been refused during job interviews and at the end of the job interview, I was told, but clearly, you shot yourself in the foot by coming with your veil. Knowing that I had taken off my veil in front of them, but they had seen me before that in the premises with my veil. I tell them, but look, I am bareheaded in front of you, I show up without a veil, I am going to work with you without a veil. But that still poses a problem in the end”.
Like Ayana, Yasmina was deeply shocked by the media and political treatment of Nahel’s death, “We heard infamous words about Nahel’s family, words that are for me unforgivable. Whether it was the internet comments from the From certain politicians and certain media, we connect on the internet. I’m on Twitter all the time. So sometimes I read things and I said to myself, but it’s crazy. comments like another Arab less, it doesn’t matter.”
“The RN won with more than 8 million votes, 8 million people in France who say that this is not our home”
Loubna runs the Authenti-cité association. Proud of her Picardy origins, Loubna claims her attachment to the values of the Republic, “I am French, I have a French culture in my thoughts and in my actions”. She remembers with emotion the last presidential elections, “I had arranged to meet these young people in front of their polling stations. It had worked and the young people were there and there had been a significant mobilization. Well, I had never seen that before. An impossible queue, it was beautiful to see and mainly young people”. For the next legislative elections, Loubna hopes to recreate this craze.
Elie is a doctoral student in political science. He also comes from Nanterre and volunteers for Authenti-cité, “I come to provide administrative help with people. I come to help with homework. I come to help in this type of event, in parcel distributions. For Elie, the situation is “historic”, but not surprising, “I think we are arriving at a moment where the extreme right is sufficiently trivialized for it not to be a surprise”, “We are 20 years that we see them, that we see everything that they do, that we see the governments which are not extreme right, which make room for them So when the moment arrives where the extreme right is. really in front of me, the shock, is not at all the same as for the people who were in 2002 and who discovered it overnight. A few years ago, Elie even ran for the legislative elections, in the hope of changing the situation, “I saw the flaws of the partisan system, the careerist dimension. It put me off a bit from commitment in politics”, “I think my place is more in the associations, on a daily basis, listening to people, trying to find solutions to help them”.
- Reportage : Emily Chaudet
- Realization : Emmanuel Geoffroy
Thanks to Loubna Benazzi from the Authenti’cité association in Nanterre, to Aziza, Hassan Krim, to Ruben, to Elie, to Mami, to Matthieu, to Ayana and to Yasmina.
