It is the difficult everyday life of a mayor who is being targeted by the ‘France insoumise’ party. Michaël Delafosse, the socialist politician from Montpellier, is accused by the radical left-wing party of stigmatising his citizens of Muslim faith, as the newspaper l’Opinion reports. The agitation against the mayor began back in 2020 during the campaign for the local elections. ‘The left was too weak … in reaffirming the values of the Republic in the face of religious pressure,’ claimed Michaël Delafosse. This opinion was expressed in the refusal to elect Samira Yakhlef, a Communist Party activist in Montpellier, as a fellow campaigner because she was veiled. ‘If she had been elected, would she have worn the tricolour and the veil together? How would she have been able to celebrate republican weddings?’ he wondered at the time. In addition, the city manager also spoke out against the burkini in municipal swimming pools and abayas in schools.
This was enough to enrage Nathalie Oziol, LFI deputy in the Hérault department: ‘As soon as he arrived, Michaël Delafosse misused secularism to cast suspicion on Muslims’. Nevertheless, the mayor of Montpellier defended himself against his accusations by emphasising that he had authorised the construction of several mosques. The Insoumi attacks go even further. Local activists from the ‘France insoumise’ party are fuelling suspicions that Michaël Delafosse is Islamophobic. This becomes clear when they distribute flyers at the exit of the mosque denouncing the ‘Islamophobia’ of the socialist mayor. Posters with his face are also put up. ‘He is involved in the closure of mosques … He only called for a ceasefire after more than 30,000 deaths and 17 demonstrations in Montpellier. He makes himself the cop of women’s clothing (abaya),’ the posters read.