People of diverse backgrounds in France welcome far right’s defeat, but fear a rise in hate speech

PARIS — For many French voters of diverse backgrounds, last Sunday’s parliamentary election results were a relief, seemingly an embrace of the country’s ethnic variety instead of a victory for xenophobic far-right forces. A renowned Nazi hunter in France, Serge Klarsfeld, went so far as to urge voters to choose the far right party over the country’s leftist coalition if faced with the choice of just those two options, saying he feared France Unbowed because of its “antisemitic overtones.” For Dominique Sopo, the head of civil society group SOS Racisme, the numbers reflect an especially tense political climate. He said the essential message of the National Rally, which has seen a steady increase in support over the past decade, is that French people would be better off “if they strike, one way or another — symbolically, legally — immigrants and their children.” His group recently filed a complaint after residents of an upper-class neighborhood in Western Paris reported receiving anonymously distributed flyers reading “Stop the Blacks.” France’s diverse population includes new immigrants and those whose foreign roots stretch back generations, including people from former French colonies in Africa. “The National Rally defends a ‘French first’ strategy that makes foreigners and immigrants scapegoats,” Mayer said. “Its success favors racist acts, mostly verbal aggressions.” During the campaign, the National Rally singled out dual citizens, saying they shouldn’t be given certain “strategic jobs.” One of its candidates, Roger Chudeau, sparked controversy when he said on TV that it had been a “mistake” to have appointed Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a French-Moroccan, to the position of education minister in 2014-17, saying it was “not a good thing for the Republic.” President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government has also tightened immigration measures, exacerbating anti-immigrant feeling in society, the human rights panel said.