SOS Racisme activists organized an “anti-racist ball” on Sunday, March 24 in front of the headquarters of the far-right party Rassemblement national in Paris to protest against Marine Le Pen’s comments on the possible participation of singer Aya Nakamura at the opening of the Olympic Games.
The most listened to French-speaking singer in the world since “Djadja” in 2018 has been targeted by the far right and subjected to numerous racist attacks since the announcement in late February by the French magazine L’Express of her possible participation in the opening ceremony on July 26 in Paris, where she could perform songs by Edith Piaf.
For their “flash mob,” the twenty or so militants present danced to the sound of the songs by the Franco-Malian singer as well as those of Edith Piaf, played at full volume in front of the closed doors of the party headquarters, as observed by an AFP journalist.
The president of the RN deputies Marine Le Pen had criticized the possibility of Aya Nakamura singing at the opening of the Games last week, stating that Emmanuel Macron wants to “divide” and “humiliate” the French. She cited “her outfit,” “her vulgarity,” or the fact that “she doesn’t sing in French.”
In response, SOS Racisme activists displayed a sign saying: “No way Marine, this is Paris, not Vichy,” referring to the Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain during World War II. They also had posters saying “Madame Le Pen, France is not humiliated by black people, it is humiliated by racists.”
“We came to thumb our noses at Marine Le Pen” with this “anti-racist ball,” explained the president of SOS Racisme, Dominique Sopo. “We are about to welcome the whole world for the Olympics and there is controversy because our greatest French-speaking artist is being symbolically – and maybe not just symbolically – sent back to Bamako,” he lamented.
Militants from the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) were also present “in support,” with the organization’s president Samuel Lejoyeux emphasizing that “anti-racism is not selective.”
