Far-right fueling racist hatred in France: Human rights groups

French human rights groups have sounded the alarm about the soaring racist hatred in the country, blaming the far-right National Rally (NR) party for its leading role in promoting racism in society.

A recent survey study by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) published on Thursday showed the far-right National Rally party is advocating nationalism by focusing on anti-immigration policy.

The study indicates a decrease in the longitudinal index of tolerance, which measures the evolution of prejudices every year, the UN-accredited CNCDH rights group said.

The decrease which is described as “substantial and rare” is taking place for the second consecutive year.

According to the CNCDH, this decline is “closely linked to the rejection of a France perceived as being increasingly multicultural.” Immigrants, particularly Muslims, are portrayed by French media as posing an existential threat to the nation.

“Today in France, we no longer feel at home,” 51 percent of French people interviewed in the recent survey said, with 56 percent of them saying, “There are too many immigrants in France.”

“For several years, the National Rally has benefited from an increased audience at the polls, but also in the media and institutions… there is a whole group of media figures and intellectuals who give voice and try to impose their ways of seeing immigration and diversity,” the report stated.

The CNCDH report also pointed to an exponential increase in racist acts in 2023, totaling 8,500 crimes or offences, according to the Ministry of the Interior, a 32 percent increase from 2022. It stressed that immigrants are disproportionately targeted.

“The immigrant, a convenient receptacle for all criticism, has regularly been singled out as responsible for the difficulties encountered in our societies,” CNCDH president, Jean-Marie Burguburu, said.

Burguburu said despite “a rise in intolerance and also a liberation of [hate] speech ... France is not generally racist because the tolerance index remains high.” 

The CNCDH report underscores the negative role played by the French government during the political debate surrounding the asylum and immigration law enacted last January.

The law, which was pushed through by the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, was described by immigrant rights NGO La Cimade as “one of the most repressive laws in the last 40 years.”

The CNCDH report points to the RN, in particular, and media organizations linked with it such as CNews for increasing anti-immigration sentiments in French society.

In the meantime, RN’s top political figures, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, emerged as the clear winners of the June 9 European elections in France, obtaining 31.37 percent of the votes.

The far-right party is also expected to lead in the snap legislative elections called by President Emmanuel Macron following his defeat in the European elections.

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