As France's streets vibrate with the anger of hundreds of thousands of student protesters going head-to-head with riot police, one mayor is standing by their side.
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mayor → vibrate → side
Footage of Bally Bagayoko has gone viral showing him crowd surfing atop the shoulders of the young demonstrators, who for more than two weeks have been blocking access to high schools and setting buildings alight.
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who → go → buildings
The mayor of Saint-Denis was elected in March with a large majority for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left party, La France Insoumise (LFI), with the support of communists, who have had a presence in the working-class Parisian suburb for decades.
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who → elect → decades
Not long after his election, Bagayoko stirred controversy when he announced his intention to disarm the local police, beginning with LBD rubber bullet launchers, whose ammunition stocks he said would not be renewed, according to RFI.
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he → stir → RFI
On Tuesday, he was filmed shielding student protesters from officers at a demonstration in Paris, shouting 'Stop' with his arms outspread.
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arms → film → Paris
Further footage showed him receiving saline solution to his eyes after being exposed to tear gas.
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him → show → gas
The Paris Police Prefect even reported him to the public prosecutor's office for 'incitement to commit a crime', after he was filmed saying that 'violence, at a given moment, can be legitimate,' in front of the Paul-Éluard high school in support of the blockade movement, Le Parisien reported.
But despite his detractors, the Muslim mayor has emerged as a hero of the youth protest movement, at a time when Emmanuel Macron's government - burdened with a spiralling debt crisis - has never been weaker.
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government → report → crisis
Saint-Denis Mayor Bally Bagayoko reacts as he stands between protesters and police officers during a demonstration of high-school students, in Paris on October 6
French high school students stand behind a barricade outside Lycee Helene-Boucher high school, as part of nationwide protests to demand better school conditions in Paris, France, October 8
French
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students → react → Paris
Corps (CRS - Compagnies Republicaines de Securite) police officers in riot gear scuffle with protesters as they attempt to evacuate a blockade action during a demonstration of high-school students in Paris, on October 8
Before he was elected with a large majority, Bagayoko served as a local councillor for 19 years and coached basketball.
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Bagayoko → scuffle → basketball
On Saturdays and Tuesdays, he still teaches children the sport, according to an interview in El País, even as he leads LFI’s biggest town with a population of 150,000.
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he → teach → 150,000
In his office at Saint-Denis town hall, a well-known official portrait of Macron leans against the wall on the floor, in what Bagayoko calls a protest against the state's failure to address social inequalities.
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Bagayoko → know → inequalities
His refusal to hang the picture earned him a letter of ire from the prefect of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, who reprimanded him for violating the 'republican custom' of displaying the presidential portrait.
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who → hang → portrait
He drapes a Palestinian flag behind his chair, according to Le Monde, in a show of support for the cause that is a powerful driving force of LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon's election campaigns.
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that → drape → campaigns
The LFI and Mélenchon have faced accusations of failing to properly condemn the October 7, 2023 attacks by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Israel.
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LFI → face → Israel
Mélenchon has also been accused of antisemitism after a long list of comments, such as when he mocked the pronunciation 'Epstein' during a political rally in February in a quip many read as an attempt to emphasise the sexual predator's Jewishness.
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many → accuse → Jewishness
Mélenchon rejected accusations of antisemitism at the time, calling his comments 'ironic'.
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Mélenchon → reject → comments
Bagayoko made himself a controversial figure when he announced soon after his election that he would begin a gradual 'process of disarming' the police.
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he → make → police
'We will review the entirety of the weapons of the local police.
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We → review → police
This will be done in consultation with police leadership, staff and city residents, so that we can have a local police that is able to act,' he told France Télévisions at the time.
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he → do → time
The comments drew the anger of the hard-Right, particularly after reports of police officers putting in transfer requests.
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officers → draw → requests
In a social media post, Eric Ciotti, the Mayor of Nice, offered to take in any officers who felt 'threatened' by Bagayoko's decision.
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who → offer → decision
The president of the hard-Right National Rally, Jordan Bardella, said that towns run by his party would be 'sanctuaries for any local police officer who wishes to work on security and be supported and respected'.
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who → say → security
Bagayoko denied reports of a 'wave' of transfer requests, calling them exaggerated.
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Bagayoko → deny → them
Since the student protest movement gripped France, he has been vocal about his opposition to the police using force, telling Reuters on Wednesday: 'They had decided to charge and effectively go after the students, many of whom had shown no aggressive behaviour whatsoever toward the police officers.'
There have been more than 6,000 arrests and dozens of student injuries since the protests began.
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protests → grip → injuries
Rights groups and unions accuse the police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flashball guns.
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groups → accuse → batons
Authorities say hundreds of police officers have also been injured, schools have been burned or ransacked, and teachers and members of the public have been attacked.
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teachers → say → public
A father of four, he said that 'the high school children who were in the street could be my children...
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who → say → street
Police officers stand guard as French high school students block the road outside Lycee Helene-Boucher high school, as part of nationwide protests to demand better school conditions in Paris, France, October 8
There have been more than 6,000 arrests and dozens of student injuries since the protests began
Born in France to Malian parents, Bagayoko grew up on a housing estate in Saint-Denis where poverty levels are more than double the national average.
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levels → stand → Denis
The town - with a young, multi-ethnic population that suffers from higher than average unemployment - was one of the first sites of student protests in late September over overcrowded and unsanitary classrooms, teacher shortages and unequal opportunities.
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that → suffer → classrooms
In comments to the Guardian, Bagayoko said that as the first mayor from a local French family with a history of immigration from Africa, he had broken a 'glass ceiling' in town politics.
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he → say → politics
Since assuming power, he says he has been the victim of racist stereotypes across TV and social media, including the charge that 'drug dealers' voted for him.
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dealers → assume → him
Bagayoko filed a criminal complaint against the CNews TV channel, according to RFI, after he accused the programme of broadcasting interviews in which guests drew analogies involving monkeys and tribal chiefs.
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guests → file → monkeys
Mathilde Panot, leader of the LFI group in the National Assembly, called the remarks 'crass' and an example of 'unapologetic racism'.
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Panot → call → racism
The channel has said the remarks were 'taken out of context' and 'deliberately distorted' and the contributor concerned has denied racist intent.
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contributor → say → intent
According to operators on his town hall’s switchboard, they are receiving five or six calls a day with racist questions such as 'is this the town hall for Arabs and blacks?'.
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this → accord → Arabs
'They’re not necessarily anonymous calls – people feel sufficiently emboldened that they don’t even bother to hide their numbers,' the head of the department, Kelly Kidou, told Franceinfo public radio.
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head → ’re → radio
High school students and members of education unions fire red smoke flares at the end of a national day of protests over school conditions at Place de la Republique in Paris, France, October 6
Bagayoko has openly criticised the French government's 2004 law banning the wearing of religious symbols or clothing in public schools as part of its strict policy of secularism, according to Le Point.
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Bagayoko → criticise → Point
'Under the guise of secularism, some laws undermine fundamental rights,' the outlet quotes the mayor as saying.
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outlet → undermine → mayor
For the past twenty years, he said these laws have aimed to 'target the Muslim community.
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laws → say → community
So I don’t support them'.
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I → support → them
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
