News items and political exploitation, a long tradition

2022: Lola and the purchase of domain names by Reconquête!

The portrait of Lola, during a tribute to Fouquereuil, October 21.

A week after the death of their daughter, the parents of Lola, 12, whose body was found in a trunk, in Paris, on October 14, launched an appeal: that “Immediately cease and be withdrawn all use of the name and likeness of [leur] child for political purposes”. The request is aimed in particular at Eric Zemmour and his far-right Reconquest party. !, whose executives bought domain names on the Internet in the name of the child – before backtracking – in order to serve their speech against immigration. A remark fueled by the profile of the suspect, an Algerian under the influence of an expulsion procedure.

The editorial of Le Monde Lola’s funeral: the death of a child, from emotion to exploitation

2022: Jeremie Cohen and the interested visit of Eric Zemmmour

On February 16, Jeremie Cohen, 31, a Jew with an invisible disability, was hit by a tram in Bobigny, after being hit and chased by around fifteen people. He died a few hours later in the hospital. The images of his violent attack circulate on social networks a few days later. In the middle of the presidential campaign, the extreme right sees in it the opportunity to impose the theme of insecurity. Eric Zemmour, again, will be received by the father of the victim. The anti-Semitic character of the attack has not yet been established.

2011: Laëtitia Perrais and the reproaches of Nicolas Sarkozy

During a silent march in tribute to Laetitia Perrais, January 29, 2011.

Laëtitia Perrais, a young 18-year-old waitress, was murdered in January 2011, in Pornic (Loire-Atlantique), by Tony Meilhon, a repeat offender whose judicial follow-up procedure was flawed. The Head of State, Nicolas Sarkozy, attacks the magistrates. “When we let an individual like the presumed culprit out of prison without ensuring that he will be followed by an integration counsellor, it is a fault, denounces the one who is in a bad position in the polls for the 2012 presidential election. Those who covered up or allowed this fault to happen will be penalised, that’s the rule. » Statements that will cause an outcry in the judiciary and among police unions.

2002: “Papy Voise” and security arguments

Paul Voise, May 27, 2004 in Orleans.

On April 18, 2002, Paul Voise, a 72-year-old retiree living in Orléans, was attacked by two youths. The shed of this man known as a gentle marginal is set on fire. The media, led by TF1, make “ Grandpa Voise » a national affair, two days before the first round of the presidential election. The Head of State, Jacques Chirac, who focused part of his campaign on insecurity, very quickly expressed his ” horror “. The subject turns on a loop when the French go to the polls. They send, to everyone’s surprise, Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round, rather than Lionel Jospin. Without the influence of the case on the result can be measured with certainty.

Read also: “Papy Voise” died at the age of 82

1973: Salah Bougrine and the Marseille Defense Committee

Screenshot of the edition of the

In August 1973, Salah Bougrine, an Algerian, killed in Marseilles, a bus driver-receiver, Désiré-Emile Gerlache. The news item stirs up racism in part of the local press. A Defense Committee of Marseilles is created at the address of the local headquarters of the FN to replace the police and denounce the“North African immigration”. Far-right groups are involved in this initiative. “The fact that our comrade’s killer is an immigrant worker must not lead to the development of racism”, replies the inter-union traminots of Marseille. Salah Bougrine will be declared irresponsible and interned in a psychiatric hospital.

source site-26