Bally Bagayoko, the unyielding mayor who will abandon support for the protests in France and unleash the anger of the ultras

Bally Bagayoko, the stubborn mayor who abandons support for protests in France and provokes the anger of the ultras The images of Bally Bagayoko interposing himself between demonstrators and law enforcement during a protest in Paris on October 6 have turned the world upside down. The mayor of Saint-Denis, a member of the France Insoumise party (LFI), is one of the politicians who has most decisively shown his support for the youth mobilized in recent weeks in France, a stance that has earned him the gratitude of many young people and the criticism of several political parties. From the first days of a mobilization that arose precisely in the Parisian suburbs, Bagayoko went to the Paul-Éluard institute in his city to support the demands. "It is the duty of a political representative to be here, [...] as I was in other major mobilizations in defense of public service," he explained then. For weeks, secondary school students across the country have been protesting about the shortcomings of the education system: the state of the buildings, the classrooms, the absence of teachers who are not replaced, the schedules poorly adapted to their needs, and the selection platform for access to higher education (Parcoursup), which they see as a multiplier of inequalities. To these initial demands has been added the indignation over the police response, which has left several teenagers with serious injuries (caused, according to initial indications, by a defensive bullet launcher, the explosion of a stun grenade, and a tear gas grenade launcher). Following the violent incidents in the first demonstrations, parents and teachers, as well as some local politicians and deputies, including Bagayoko, joined in and encouraged others to do the same to interpose themselves between the youth and the agents, avoid tense situations, and protect the teenagers. Since then, the mayor of Saint-Denis is greeted with ovations by the youth (and has also been congratulated by the NBA star Victor Wembanyama) at demonstrations or blockades, although the students emphasize that his movement has nothing to do with any party. Bagayoko himself has made clear on several occasions his will not to divert the debate "from the demands of our youth." A view that the French government does not share, which denounces the manipulation of young people by LFI and by "the far-left," whom it accuses of promoting violence. The Executive has emphasized, from the beginning, the violent acts that have occurred outside of certain mobilizations, which the Minister of the Interior has called "urban violence." The Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, denounced on the social network X an "irresponsible escalation" by LFI members, for "asking to expand" the school blockade movement. The LFI leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, responded by accusing the Executive of having "ordered repression" against students. Bally Bagayoko is also part of the leaders pointed to by the national authorities as "instigators." The police prefect of Paris, Patrice Faure (who reports to the Ministry of the Interior), has filed a complaint against him for "alleged acts of incitement to commit a crime." The president of the Paris region, the conservative Valerie Pécresse, declared that "she will send the bill for the entrance gate" of the Paul-Éluard institute, damaged by the demonstrators. For Bagayoko, law enforcement "is what has committed acts of violence," he defended a few days ago on the public news channel Franceinfo. "I myself was sprayed with tear gas," he noted, calling for calm and asking the national authorities to do the same. "Calming also means (...) giving precise instructions to the national police," he added. Objective of right-wing media Despite this message of calm, right-wing and far-right news channels broadcast images in a loop of tear gas charges, acts of vandalism against school buildings, and violence against police and public education officials. And they do not hesitate to link the mayor of Saint-Denis and other members of LFI to the acts of violence, even when they occur in cities where they are not present. Bagayoko has become one of the usual targets of these media attacks since his emergence in national politics last spring. In the last municipal elections, he was elected with a resounding victory in the first round and became the first mayor of LFI to conquer a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. His victory was met with a wave of racism, particularly in the main conservative French news channel, CNEWS, owned by the millionaire Vincent Bolloré. One of the show hosts on the channel, Jean Doridot, thought it appropriate to explain to viewers that homo sapiens are "social mammals." "We belong to the family of great simians. And, therefore, in all communities, in all tribes — our ancestor hunter-gatherers lived in tribes— there is a leader whose mission is to impose his authority." In the same vein, the philosopher Michel Onfray also decided to enter the realm of anthropology and natural sciences to evaluate Bagayoko's victory. He attributed to him an attitude of "dominant male" for having asked his citizens for "loyalty" to exercise his new function. "That is something very tribal," Onfray pointed out. "We are not in a primitive tribe, as Darwin describes, where there is a dominant male who decides 'you will have food, you will not have food; I will keep the females, you will not have females'." The sequences were publicly denounced by left and center political parties. France Insoumise has asked for the withdrawal of the broadcasting license from CNews. The government also referred the case to the Prosecutor's Office, which opened two investigations: one for "public insults" of a racist nature and a second related to cyberbullying suffered by Bagayoko on the social network X. There was no public condemnation from the Republicans nor from the far-right. CNews denied any racist tinge in its reports and tried to present itself as a victim of censorship attempts. The controversy did not prevent the journalist Vincent Hervouet from stating weeks later on the same channel that "France lost Mali, but we have Bally Bagayoko, a Malian mayor in France." Against racism Against the racist attacks to which he has been subjected since his election, Bagayoko showed his will to use attention and indignation to advance "the mother of all struggles: the fight against racism." Supported by his party and a large part of the associative world, he organized a large demonstration against racism in his city in early April. He already wanted to put "the youth" of the area in the spotlight by giving the floor to secondary school students and young activists. In fact, since taking office, Bagayoko has repeated his will to "address the problems [social] from the source," "accompanying young people," and "fighting against school exclusion," while denouncing the lack of involvement of regional and national authorities, from which the budgets in this matter depend. Despite the notoriety he enjoys in France since this year (and, in recent weeks, internationally), Bagayoko is not a newcomer to politics. Born in Levallois-Perret, on the outskirts of Paris, in 1973, he holds a higher education degree in Geopolitics obtained at the University of Paris-VIII, and had been moving in the associative sphere for years when the communist mayor of Saint-Denis Patrick Braouezec (1991-2004) proposed to him joining the City Council, where he held the position of deputy mayor between 2001 and 2020. During that period, in parallel, he obtained a paid position in the Autonomous Administration of Parisian Transport, an accumulation of positions whose legality has been called into question by information appearing in the newspaper Le Canard Enchâiné, which has led to a judicial investigation. About a decade ago, his relations with the PCF deteriorated and Bagayoko began to move closer to LFI, which at that time had begun an electoral implantation work in the suburbs, recruiting anti-racist militants and giving greater prominence to the fight against Islamophobia, reports of police violence, and the lack of public services. However, Bagayoko is not part of the main body of the party surrounding Jean-Luc Mélenchon and claims a certain independence from the leadership. Aware of the symbolic importance of a mayoralty like Saint-Denis, he hopes to make his voice heard in the 2027 presidential campaign.