At the National Assembly, controversy over the minute of silence for Aboubakar Cissé

For Yaël Braun-Pivet, the memory of Aboubakar Cissé was not worth a minute of silence. This Tuesday, April 29, the deputies of the New Popular Front (NFP) requested a tribute in the Chamber for the 22-year-old man, murdered while praying in the mosque of La Grand-Combe (Gard), on April 25. "I did it... your shitty Allah," can be heard on the video filmed by the assassin. But, on Tuesday morning, the conference of parliamentary group presidents responsible for discussing the agenda refused, "for lack of consensus," the left's proposal to organize this tribute, Renaissance and the RN opposing their veto.

The President of the National Assembly then justified this decision by explaining that there have been no minutes of silence "for individual cases" since January, except for political figures and victims of terrorism (hence the minutes of silence organized in March in honor of Jean-Louis Debré or Ohad Yahalomi, a Franco-Israeli killed while he was a Hamas hostage). Before this change of rule, the Assembly had observed silence following other murders that had sparked national outcry: Nahel and Thomas in 2023, or Philippine in 2024.

"This is not an individual case, it is an Islamophobic murder , an Islamophobic climate in the country. This is a very serious political error by the President of the National Assembly," reacted LFI MP Thomas Portes very quickly, while the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, said he was "scandalized, it is an aberration, an injustice and a mistake."

Faced with the ever-increasing controversy, Yaël Braun-Pivet finally changed her mind and herself called for a minute's silence at the opening of the session, before questions to the government. The far-right benches , from the UDR (U-Ciottist) to the RN (National Rally of the National Front), appeared very sparse, in contrast to the benches of the NFP and the Macronist deputies, who were fully present. This was something the left did not fail to note.

In the morning, a first controversy had already erupted when the family of Aboubakar Cissé was received at the National Assembly, at the initiative of the Green MP Sabrina Sebaihi, in the presence of the leaders of the PS and the Greens, Olivier Faure and Marine Tondelier. "Bruno Retailleau refused to meet us," lamented the victim's family. "I have not received any request," assured the Minister of the Interior, who was already criticized for not having gone immediately to La Grand-Combe after the murder.

"I regret that you did not go to the family's bedside," denounced the communist Soumya Bourouaha in the Chamber, adding: "You cannot ignore that discrimination against Muslims is up 72% compared to 2024." The minister is also accused by many left-wing figures of contributing to the xenophobic climate in the country. "You fanned the flames of hatred and today hatred has killed again!" accused Sabrina Sebaihi, who, like LFI, is calling for his resignation.