Attack in Trappes and La Verrière: “The first time…”, Emmanuel Macron’s little phrase that doesn’t get across

This Friday, the political class expressed its disapproval of Emmanuel Macron's comments on the attack in Trappes, which the president described as the "first" terrorist act due to "skin color or religion", despite precedents.

On both sides of the political spectrum through associations, the head of state is accused of "forgetting", of "denying reality", in particular of the attacks committed in 2012 by Mohammed Merah, which cost the lives of seven people including three children from a Jewish school, that of the hypercasher in 2015, the assassination of Father Hamel in 2016 or even the attack on the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice in 2020.

“The first time…”

On Friday, a man suspected of wanting to attack people of immigrant background killed one person and injured five during a shooting between Trappes and La Verrière (Yvelines). He was arrested and taken into police custody. “It’s a turning point because it’s the first time that there has been a terrorist act planned to kill our compatriots, our children, because of their skin color or the religion we give them,” said Emmanuel Macron, traveling in the evening to Trappes.

“What happened today was a racist, terrorist attack,” he assured. “We have nothing to give in to the ideas that are taking hold in the Republic and which can justify this kind of behavior or which create an atmosphere which could justify them. »

“Factually false and therefore politically problematic…”

“Contrary to what you state, this is not “the first time” that French people have been targeted and killed, as part of a planned terrorist operation, “because of their skin color or their religion”,” launched the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, on the X platform, recalling the precedents of the last 15 years.

“This statement by the President of the Republic is factually false and therefore politically problematic,” added the PS deputy for Essonne Jérôme Guedj, stressing that “identity assignment” had already “served as a lever for terrorism”.

Going back to Rue des Rosiers in 1982, MEP and LR member François-Xavier Bellamy called on Emmanuel Macron not, “to make people believe that it is a “turning point”, to suddenly deny the reality of the tears shed by France for far too long”, also mentioning the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the murder of Samuel Paty, “killed for what they did not believe in”.

A president who “chooses his dead”

“Tragic evening where a president chooses his dead. He forgets Catholics, like Father Hamel, who died because he was Catholic. He forgets the Jews, like the Sandler children, who died because they were Jews. He forgets white people, like Thomas, who died because he is white,” said MEP Sarah Knafo (Reconquest).

The president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif), Yonathan Arfi, was also moved by Emmanuel Macron's declaration. “To kill a Frenchman for his skin color or his supposed religion is to attack the entire Republic. We are all alongside the victims without reservation,” he wrote on

The president recovers

In the evening, the Élysée reacted to the controversy which was growing on social networks by explaining that “the head of state is obviously talking about the first racist attack on the basis of skin color committed in our country, as he specified at the start of his intervention”.

The Head of State himself specified in a message on None of these victims should be forgotten. No pain should be hierarchical.” “And I want nothing, this evening, to add to the pain of the families, to the sadness of the country and to the contemplation of the nation,” said Emmanuel Macron.