Daniele Obono speaks during a question-to-government session.
Paris, France:
French President Emmanuel Macron sparked outrage across the country on Saturday after an ultra-conservative magazine portrayed a black lawmaker as a slave.
The French presidency said Macron had called Danielle Obono of the far-left France Unbowed party and “expressed his clear condemnation of any form of racism.”
The magazine Valeurs Actuelles, aimed at right-wing and far-right readers, showed Obono chained with an iron collar around his neck to illustrate an imaginary seven-page story.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said it was a “shocking publication that calls for clear condemnation” and told Obono it had government support.
“I share the indignation of lawmaker Obono,” he said.
“We are free to write a putrid novel within the limits set by law. We are free to hate it. I hate it,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said.
Obono tweeted: “The far right – hateful, stupid and cruel. In short, like herself.”
Anti-racism organization SOS Racisme lamented the rise in hate speech against African and Arab politicians and said it was considering legal measures that could be taken to counter this.
The magazine, however, denied it was racist, claiming the story about Obono was “a work of fiction … but never mean.”
An official of the far-right French National Rally party, Wallerand de Saint-Just, said the story was “in absolute bad taste”.
France witnessed several protests in June and July against racial injustice as well as colonial and police brutality, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd at the knees of the police in the United States.
Macron, a centrist who raised his eyebrows when he gave an interview to Valeurs Actuelles last year and hailed it as a “good magazine”, has pledged to stamp out racism.
But he also said France would not destroy statues of figures linked to colonial times or the slave trade, as has recently happened in other countries.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
