Vice World News: Intense Policing and a Hijab Ban: Why People Fear Le Pen Will Win
April 22, 2022
PERPIGNAN, France – Ibrahim is scared of the local train station.
Ever since the city of Perpignan elected a mayor from the country’s far-right party, the National Rally, in 2020, the young migrant from Guinea said the level of police harassment he’s experienced at the station has become unbearable.
“The police stops have become too much, for us migrants and Black people in Perpignan, it’s become too much,” said the 23-year-old, who withheld his full name.
“Morally, physically, psychologically, I feel beaten down. I can’t even walk down the street. It’s become too much.”
On Sunday, the National Rally’s leader Marine Le Pen will go up against incumbent president Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election. A large part of Le Pen’s platform is based on anti-immigrant and xenophobic policies. Under her plans, households with at least one French parent would be prioritised in everything from public service jobs, social housing and benefits, and the hijab would be banned. She is polling behind centrist Macron, but a low turn-out among left-wing voters could tip the scales in Le Pen’s favour.
Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees say they have been victims of worsening racism under Louis Aliot, a mayor from Le Pen’s party. Those VICE World News spoke to say they fear the worst if Le Pen is voted in.
When Perpignan, which is in the south of France near the border with Spain, elected Aliot two years ago, it became the biggest city in the country to elect a member from the National Rally as their mayor. Perpignan is seen as a laboratory for the party’s larger electoral strategy and shines a light on the growing popularity of the far-right in France, and the normalisation of anti-immigrant, xenophobic ideology.
