French community pays tribute to teen killed by police, amid political and racial tensions

NANTERRE, France — A year after a French teenager of North African descent was killed by police – a shooting that sparked shock and days of riots across France – his mother is leading a silent march Saturday to pay tribute to her son.

It comes at a politically charged moment. Hate speech is marring the campaign for a snap general election this weekend, and an anti-immigration party that wants to strengthen police gun powers and has historical links to racism and anti-Semitism is leading in the polls.

Families and friends gather in Nanterre, a Paris suburb, to pay tribute to Nahel Merzouk, 17, shot dead at close range by a police officer during a road check on June 27, 2023. A few hours after his death, Merzouk, driver- delivery man from a working-class neighborhood, has become a symbol. For many across France, he epitomized young black and North African French men who, studies show, face police stops and discrimination more frequently than their white counterparts.

“United in our quest for justice and truth. Nahel will not be forgotten. The fight will resonate through our steps and our voices,” Nahel’s relatives said in an Instagram post. Only his mother Mounia and close friends are expected to speak publicly during the march, and they want to avoid any politics or tensions. on the eve of the French legislative elections.

On Sunday, French voters will vote in the first round of snap elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, which could lead to the country's first far-right government since the Nazi occupation of World War II.

French opinion polls suggest that the National Rally could dominate the next parliament after the July 7 runoff and secure the premiership. In this scenario, centrist President Emmanuel Macron would retain the presidency until 2027, but in a significantly weakened role.

“This march, which is taking place now, is a powerful symbol,” said Assa Traoré, who has been fighting for justice since the death of her brother Adama while in French police custody in 2016.

“This means that history cannot be written without us. We, from working-class neighborhoods, are the first victims of these elections. We understood very early on that the National Rally and the far-right parties represented a danger for our country and would weaken it,” declared this 39-year-old man of Malian origin who will march alongside Merzouk’s family.

Merzouk’s death, which was caught on video, has stoked long-standing tensions between police and young people from deprived housing projects and suburbs, many of them French-born and from immigrant families. Fueled by TikTok, the riots spread with unprecedented speed before a massive police crackdown. The unrest has caused more than $1 billion in damage, according to French authorities.

The officer who fired the shot claimed self-defense, and a far-right figure launched a crowdfunding campaign for the officer that raised $1.6 million before it was shut down.

Citing security concerns, particularly in housing projects and other disadvantaged areas of the French suburbs, the National Rally (RND) wants to give the police a new specific legal status. If police officers use their weapons during an intervention, they will be presumed to have acted in self-defense. Currently, police officers have the same legal status as all French citizens and must prove that they acted in self-defense.

The left-wing New Popular Front coalition, meanwhile, wants to ban the use of certain police weapons and dismantle a notoriously tough police unit.

“People fear the victory of the National Rally. But we, residents of working-class neighborhoods, fear every day that our sons, our brothers or our husbands will be killed. Racism and racial profiling are part of our daily lives,” Traoré said.

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Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

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