Racist attack in Trappes: mayor denounces continuum with far-right discourse
The mayor of Trappes Ali Rabeh claims that hundreds of people in France share the ideas of suspect Kévin Tessier, who targeted victims based on their "ethnicity and religion". He points to a direct link between far-right political discourse and the commission of the attack.
Mayor of Trappes reacts to revelations about the suspect
Ali Rabeh, mayor of Trappes and elected representative of the Génération.s party, declared on Thursday on France Info that he was not surprised by the discovery of a list of left-wing and far-left personalities at the home of the suspect in the racist attack in the Yvelines, Kévin Tessier. According to the municipal official, radicalised individuals are actively operating online, organising their activities via closed channels.
"There are hundreds of Kévin Tessiers in France," the mayor stated the day after new revelations about the suspect's statements made during police custody. "People who converse quite calmly in Telegram groups and who are planning attack projects, there are dozens of them," he added.
According to investigators, the suspect targeted by "ethnicity and religion"
France Info reports that the suspect declared in police custody that he had targeted his victims based on their "ethnicity and religion", specifically people "of Muslim or African type", with the aim of "freeing the country". Kévin Tessier, 39, is suspected of having killed a 26-year-old Black Frenchman, Pengo Bossio Wangi, and injured seven other people during attacks carried out in Trappes and La Verrière on Friday 23 October.
A continuum between discourse and acts, according to Rabeh
Ali Rabeh claims that the discourse of Rassemblement national elected representatives and the CNews channel directly led to the attack. "Words always precede acts," the mayor believes, denouncing a "continuum between far-right ideas, their free and uninhibited expression on air and the commission of the act". He insists: "All of this is not a coincidence".
The mayor of Trappes criticises the absence of consequences for political and media figures despite the attack. "We cannot allow our public debate to be corrupted by extremely violent words, and people convicted of incitement to racial hatred cannot continue to populate television and radio programmes with impunity," he declares. He also deplores the fact that the "stigmatising discourse of the RN" targeting Trappes and equating its population with "dangerous Islamists" has not ceased after the attack.
The suspect's list does not surprise Rabeh
The discovery of a list of activists and left-wing elected officials at Tessier's home did not surprise the mayor, although it has not been established whether the suspect was considering attacking these people. "Unfortunately, it does not surprise me," Rabeh reacted. According to him, threats emanating from the far right constitute "the daily lot of many elected officials in France".
Ali Rabeh claims to receive himself "very regularly" death threats or racist insults in anonymous letters. He cites notably messages containing highly offensive terms: "Bougnoule, it's the suitcase or the coffin" and "Your shit city, Islamicised, rotten with Arab-Muslims and negroids, will be cleaned up". "These are the writings we must face when we are an elected official who has black skin or who is seen as Arab, as Muslim by those who watch CNews," he concludes.
Moreover, a racist letter containing white powder addressed to the mayor of Trappes contained talc, according to the authorities.
Source: France Info