AGRIF files a complaint against Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Imane Hamel for public insults

The general alliance against racism and for respect for French and Christian identity (AGRIF), which defines itself on its website as an anti-racist association, has initiated proceedings against Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate in the presidential election for La France Insoumise (LFI), and Imane Hamel, member of LFI, Le Figaro learned, confirming information from Europe 1.

Two complaints with the constitution of a civil party were filed on Saturday at the Paris judicial court by Me Jérôme Triomphe for “public insults towards a group of people because of their belonging to the race”, confirms Yann Baly, president of AGRIF.

The first complaint concerns comments made by Jean-Luc Mélenchon during a conference of his party on March 18. The 74-year-old candidate had castigated “the reactors who all started screaming” when he estimated that it would not have been possible to build the basilica of Saint-Denis “if you had not asked the Muslims how it is done”.

The rebellious leader then attacked Gothic culture, because "the Goths were only capable of breaking arches, that's all they knew how to do", before saluting the success of "someone who stands up on his feet at the other end of the African continent so that in the end, here, you are acting smart, all white, all ugly as you are".

“The only unfortunate glory is to be born white”

The second complaint concerns comments made by Imane Hamel, coordinator of the LFI anti-racist campaign, during a meeting in Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) on October 16, 2025. “By a rewriting of history, the French people are reduced to a blood line with an ossified culture,” she declared in the forum. Before adding a few moments later: “We are no less French than the one whose only unfortunate glory is to be born white.”

“These words, in the current harmful climate, can lead some to take action. We have decided not to let anything pass,” Yann Baly told Le Figaro.