Bruno Retailleau: a state slip, by Daniel Schneidermann

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“Media” column file

Following the murder of Aboubakar Cissé in a mosque in Gard, the tributes paid by state representatives are proof of systemic racism.

Bruno Retailleau, during a public meeting as part of his campaign for the LR party presidential election in La Motte-Servolex (Savoie), on April 25, 2025. (Alex Martin/AFP)

In times of polarization, there are victims we mourn, and those we mourn. Those we celebrate, and those we concede. Our own, and those of the opposing camp. Those we drag out, and those we stunt, in the rush to move on to the next one. Those who individually achieve victim status, and those who are admitted only as part of a group. Not all victims are equal before the media homage and the political homage, which are closely connected to each other.

Three days after the murder in a mosque in the Gard region of France of a young Muslim man, Aboubakar Cissé, with around fifty stab wounds, by a Frenchman of Bosnian origin, shouting "Your shitty Allah", the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, invited to react on BFM upon his return from Alès, details the police investigation as follows: "We are in the process of finding the family links that Abouba... that this individual had... that this person had..."

“Media” Chronicle Racism Bruno Retailleau