Activists from SOS Racisme organized an “anti-racist ball” on Sunday in front of the headquarters of the National Rally in Paris to protest against Marine Le Pen's comments on the possible participation of singer Aya Nakamura in the opening of the Olympic Games. .
The most listened to French-speaking singer in the world since “Djadja”, in 2018, is the target of the far right and has been the subject of numerous racist attacks since the announcement, at the end of February by the weekly L'Express, of her possible participation in the opening ceremony on July 26, during which she could perform songs by Edith Piaf.
For their “flash mob”, the twenty activists present danced to the sounds of the Franco-Malian hits but also those of Edith Piaf, broadcast at full blast in front of the party headquarters with closed doors, noted a journalist from the AFP.
“France is not humiliated by blacks, it is humiliated by racists”
The president of the deputies RN Marine Le Pen had criticized last week the possibility of Aya Nakamura singing at the opening of the Games, affirming that Emmanuel Macron wants to “divide” and “humiliate” the French.
She had cited “her outfit”, “her vulgarity”, or even the fact “that she doesn’t sing French”.
In response, SOS Racisme activists brandished a sign: “There is no way Marine, this is Paris, it’s not Vichy” or posters “Madame Le Pen, France is not humiliated by blacks, she is humiliated by the 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 preparing to welcome the whole world for the Olympic Games and we are having a controversy because our greatest French-speaking artist, some want to send her back symbolically – and not perhaps only symbolically – to Bamako,” said he lamented.
Activists from the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) were also present “in support”, the president of the organization Samuel Lejoyeux, emphasizing that “anti-racism is not on the menu”.