Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-04-08
Source: The Conversation – France in French (3)– By Marie-Hélène Bacqué, Sociologist, Urban Planner, University Paris Nanterre
A new generation of mayors belonging to visible minorities emerged during the municipal elections of March 2026. Their presence is part of a very slow movement, linked to the long-term efforts of activists from working-class neighborhoods. The racist attacks against these elected officials, and particularly against Bally Bagayoko, mayor of Saint-Denis in Seine-Saint-Denis, are particularly harsh. Some elected officials testify: colonialist undertones, an Islamophobic climate, suspicions of witchcraft…
A series of racist reactions emanating from far-right media, echoed by several national channels (Cnews, RMC, France 5) and by political leaders greeted, during the last municipal election, the election of mayors from racialized backgrounds and the joyful celebrations that took place in their cities. Official responses were slow to come. Sofienne Karroumi in Aubervilliers, Aly Diouara in La Courneuve, Demba Traoré in Le Blanc-Mesnil, Mélissa Youssouf in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), Imène Souid-Ben Cheikh in Orly (Val-de-Marne), Bassi Konaté in Sarcelles (Val-d’Oise), Adama Gaye in Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines), Kadir Mebarek in Melun (Seine-et-Marne), and also beyond Île-de-France: Omar Yaqoob in Creil (Oise), Abdel-Kader Guerza in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir), Idir Boumertit in Vénissieux (Rhône)… They, more often than they (female), are today the chief magistrates of their respective cities. They have in common belonging to ethnoracial minorities and representing working-class areas.
What do these reactions say about representation in politics, its evolution, and its inertia?
A slow movement of recognition
“Politics is a domain of privileged, elderly, educated men from the upper echelons of society,” noted the political scientistRémi LefebvreA – it should be specified as white men. The election of these new mayors upsets, partially, this established order and the representations that accompany it.
Their rise to responsibility is not, however, sudden. It reflects a slow movement and a difficult recognition of the work of activists from popular neighborhoods. In ainvestigation concerning Seine Saint-Denis, a working-class department, historically marked by municipal communism and by the history of immigration, we showed at the local level asignificant progress from the elected racisé·esbetween the 2001 elections (9%) and those of 2020 (36%).
It was not until 2014 that a municipality in Seine-Saint-Denis, Stains, elected its first mayor of racialized background, Azzedine Taïbi. The glass ceiling for access to the position of mayor had just begun to crack. The movement continued with the election of seven racialized mayors in 2000, then 13, including two women, in the last election — all seven incumbents having been re-elected. This dynamic of openness is thus well confirmed in Seine-Saint-Denis as well as, more broadly, in working-class suburbs. It reflects, albeit rather timidly, the ethnoracial diversity of their populations.
This opening, however, does not result in better representation of women, who remain largely underrepresented: 4 women mayors out of the 39 cities in the department, including two women of mixed-race descent. Additionally, the working classes remain largely excluded from political representation.
Contrary to prejudices that associate racialized people with those without diplomas, belonging to the working classes, these racialized mayors reflect the overall profile of mayors of cities with over 30,000 inhabitants, whose original profession is mostly linked to upper and intermediate categories. Nonetheless, they most often come from working-class families, have grown up, and live in the territories that politically socialized them.
A diversity of paths
Contrary to media portrayals that view these new mayors solely through the lens of race, presenting them as a homogeneous group, it is also their diverse backgrounds that are confirmed. Their election is often associated with La France insoumise (LFI) and depicted as a sudden eruption into political life, whereas their trajectories reflect a deep-rooted and long-term commitment to their neighborhoods and cities.
Their political affiliations are multiple, and they maintain complex relationships with political parties often ready to use them but more reluctant to acknowledge them. Several have led“citizen lists”or “various” gathering thesupport from several parties.
In the single city of La Courneuve, for example, three racialized candidates were vying against each other, all three from the Cité des 4 000: Aly Dioura, Nadia Chahboune, Oumarou Doucouré. The first built his base in the local associative fabric: tenant association, homework help in a neighborhood association. Very critical of political parties, he engaged in representative politics by immediately asserting his independence, participating in the creation of the citizen movement La Seine Saint-Denis au cœur. He ran under this banner in the 2021 departmental elections and the 2022 legislative elections. Two years later, in 2024, he was endorsed by LFI and elected deputy. It is also an LFI list that he leads for the 2026 municipal elections which allows him to become mayor.
Nadia Chahboune, for her part, leads the list supported by the communist mayor who is not running again. She also comes from the associative environment; she created and chaired two sports associations aimed at women before being solicited by the communist mayor for the 2020 elections. She then held the position of deputy mayor during one term. Unlike Aly Diouara, she wishes to maintain her independence from political parties. As for Oumarou Doucouré, he is a member of the Socialist Party, a technical advisor in the office of the president of the Departmental Council, and has a more classic partisan trajectory that led him to the position of first deputy during the 2020-2026 term and then to lead a list invested by the PS in the last municipal elections. These three paths illustrate different relationships with the partisan field, made of oppositions, collaborations, and attempts of emancipation.
The seven racisé·e mayors elected in 2020 and reelected in 2026 also testified to a complex relationship with political parties. Among the five who identify as left-wing, there is an ally, Abdel Saadi, and a member of the French Communist Party (PCF) who gave up his membership card in 2022, Azzedine Taïbi (Stains), a member of the Socialist Party (PS) who began his political career in the PCF, Karim Bouamrane (Saint-Ouen), and two mayors who led citizen lists. One, Mohamed Gnabaly (L’Île-Saint-Denis), has since joined The Ecologists (formerly EELV), while the other, Dieunor Excellent (Villetaneuse), had previously flirted with the Radical Left Party (PRG) and the PS and continues to collaborate with elected officials from these parties within the intercommunality. The two right-wing racisé mayors elected in 2020 had been invested by The Republicans (LR), where they started their political careers. However, one, Rolin Cranoly (Gagny), left this party in 2024, not identifying with the alliance with the National Rally (RN) advocated by its then president, while the other, Zartoshte Bakhtiary (Neuilly-sur-Marne), led a centrist union list in the last municipal election.
Predecessors already confronted with racism
The racist attack against Bally Bakayoko, mayor of Saint-Denis, was particularly violent; it is coupled with class contempt and stigmatization of working-class suburbs. Azzedine Taïbi had already reported the Islamophobic climate that had marked his 2014 campaign. Dieunor Excellent recounted rumors circulating about his use of witchcraft during his election in 2020. Both have repeatedly received threats and insults that led them to file complaints. Meriem Derkaoui, who succeeded the communist mayor of Aubervilliers during the term in 2016, was confronted with the doubt instilled by the media, whenle Parisien, for example, titled “Madame la Maire franco-Algerian… reinstated”, about a procedure that took place twenty years earlier.
The scenario repeats itself and becomes harsher as racialized individuals come into positions of responsibility. Added to this are all the expressions of everyday racism encountered by many elected officials, like this deputy mayor:
“Ah, it’s subtle, it’s very subtle. At first, you doubt yourself, thinking it is not possible. At first, they mispronounce your name, then ask you to repeat it; when you say a sentence, they ask you to repeat it two or three times; it’s about coming to see you and asking if you are fasting during Ramadan.”
Or from this other elected official:
“I arrive in departments where [people] have degrees plus ten, or plus seven, and the little Black woman who arrives, who is their boss, sometimes it was maybe complicated for some to accept.”
The election of these new mayors represents an important step towards political representation in which the residents of working-class neighborhoods can identify themselves.
But the outburst of racist reactions with colonialist undertones also testifies, in reverse, to the pervasiveness of racial, class, and gender discrimination, and the power relations that structure political representation and, beyond that, French society. These new mayors have contributed to opening the door to representation, to opening new political imaginaries and possibilities. Will they be allowed to fulfill the role entrusted to them by the voters?
The media and political pressure they face, the trials of legitimacy and communitarianism, the inevitable power struggles to come when they want to implement their programs represent a real democratic challenge which some of their predecessors elected in 2020 have already had to confront. This dynamic of openness and recognition, to consolidate itself, will need to be confirmed and amplified during upcoming electoral events, both local and national.
The authors do not work for, do not advise, do not hold shares in, do not receive funding from any organization that could benefit from this article, and have declared no affiliation other than their research institution.
–ref. These elected officials from immigration facing racism –https://theconversation.com/these-elected-officials-from-immigration-facing-racism-280049