President Macron has rightly condemned the horrific attack in Trappes, but the way in which he did so was far from reassuring.
There was a series of shootings on Friday in Trappes, France. One person was murdered and five others injured, including a twelve-year-old girl, who was hit eight times and is in a serious but reportedly stable condition.
The French interior minister said the (sole) suspect, who has been caught, used what appeared to be “a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon, on five people in different locations.” He also said that there was “a rather strong indication” that the crime was terror-related.
Nicolas Dainville, the mayor of nearby La Verriere, said the suspect was “of a European type.” Rabeh [the mayor of Trappes] said two of the victims were of African and North African origin, respectively, and did not provide details about the backgrounds of the other victims.
President Macron has rightly condemned this horrific attack, but the way in which he did so was far from reassuring.
“What happened today is, I am telling you, a turning point, because it is the first time we have had a terrorist act that was planned to kill our compatriots, our children, based on the colour of their skin or their religion,” Macron told reporters.
The first time?
As was quickly pointed out on X and elsewhere: Not exactly.
To take a couple of examples from many: What about the two Islamist terrorists, who in 2016 attacked those attending a Mass in a Catholic church? They took a number of those attending prisoner and killed the officiating priest, Jacques Hamel, by slitting his throat. Father Hamel was 85.
The next day a Mass was held in Father Hamel’s memory at Notre-Dame. Macron was among those in attendance.
But he didn’t seem to remember Hamel when he spoke on Friday.
And what about the attack in 2012 by Mohammed Merah, an Islamist gunman, on the Ozar Hatorah Jewish day school in Toulouse?
He murdered four people, three of them under ten years old.
Merah was killed in the aftermath of the attack, but he has been in the news recently. A rap song referencing (and named after) him was recently released (it also namechecks Hitler and the only survivor of the group responsible for the 2015 Paris attacks). It has been chanted by high schoolers during at least one demonstration and was being played by another group of teenagers as they filmed themselves riding scooters and skateboards inside a church.
Given the controversy the song has stirred up and the fact that it and the incident in the church have triggered a legal response by the authorities, it might have been thought that Merah’s crimes would have been on Macron’s mind when he spoke. But it seems not.
Later on Friday, Macron, clearly responding to criticism of his earlier comments, tweeted out an additional response to the Trappes shooting.
He still referred to the shootings as a turning point:
We are confronted with an act of extreme gravity, and one that, by its proven racist nature, marks a turning point for our country.
But, among other points, added this:
I also want to recall an essential truth and avoid any controversy: in recent years, our country has experienced attacks that targeted Christians because they were Christians and Jews because they were Jews. None of these victims must be forgotten. No pain must be ranked above another. And I want nothing tonight to add to the grief of the families, to the sorrow of the country, or to the nation’s solemn reflection.
But if antisemitism is racism (it is, of course), there has been no “turning point,” but rather a descent further along a path toward a very dark place.
To reverse course is going to take more skill than Macron showed yesterday.