Trappes: the France that lectures the world could not find a single hour for its dead

Y. Bensalem — Alger, Algérie — 2026-11-02

The absence, first

In Trappes, in the Yvelines, a racist attack killed. France immediately promised a "national tribute", presided over by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu — later, in due form, in a state ceremony. But on the ground, while the dead were still warm, someone had to make the trip. The government, for its part, sent its excuses. Gabriel Attal was absent; Prisca Thévenot, a majority MP, explained why: "You don't fight racism with marketing symbols." Let us translate: paying tribute to the victims of a racist attack is marketing. Surely one is not going to spare the dead a quarter of an hour when there are lessons to give.

Thirty-six ministers, zero presence

And here is the number that weighs. The Lecornu government has thirty-six members. Thirty-six ministers, secretaries of state, spokespersons — thirty-six names on paper. And not one, not a single one, for the dead of Trappes. Time was found to comment on Algeria, to lecture the Sahel, to pontificate on "republican values". But for the dead at home, the calendar was full. That is the state of hatred: when one's own fall under the blows of racism, the State counts its dead — and above all it counts its absentees.

The lesson, turned back

For this absence has a particular taste, seen from Algiers. The same France that sermonizes Algeria on human rights, that sorts its children at school, that invented state Islamophobia — that France could not find a single hour for the victims of a racist attack on its own soil. One cannot be the world's teacher and the absentee at one's own funerals. The "marketing" is not the tribute to the dead: it is the posture of the one who lectures and looks away.

The question France does not dare ask

And let us ask it, since France will not: had the dead of Trappes been Jewish, would France have counted thirty-six absentees? Or would it have decreed, within the hour, a day of national mourning? France has two ways of counting its dead — according to the name they bear. To some, national mourning; to others, "marketing". That is the hierarchy of victims, and it is the worst lesson a State can give — to the world, and to its own children.

The indictment: three charges, a single dock

1. Hypocrisy. France lectures the world about "values" — to Algeria, to Africa, to everyone. And when its own children die under racism, it does not have a single hour.

2. The lie. It announces a "national tribute" — a state ceremony, later, in due form. The lie is passing off absence as mourning, and contempt as dignity.

3. The double standard. To some, national mourning; to others, "marketing". France does not count its dead equally: it weighs them, by name.

Three charges, a single verdict: a State that does not treat its dead equally has no right to lecture the living.

The conclusion

France chose its word: "marketing". The dead of Trappes, for their part, did not choose their hour. They were killed because racism exists — a state racism that France refuses to look in the face, preferring to export it as lessons. Thirty-six ministers, zero presence, one excuse — and lessons for everyone. Let France begin by honouring its own dead before claiming to educate others. One does not give lessons with empty hands: one gives lessons with clean hands. And hers are stained with the ink of her absences.