French are 'becoming more tolerant', annual racism survey shows
Since 1990, French human rights group the
Commission nationale consultative des droits de l'homme
has run a detailed annual survey examining national attitudes towards issues of race, religion and ethnicity.
The results of the 2024 survey have just been published and show that "tolerance is on the rise again" as the report concludes, showing that people are less likely to hold racist opinions in 2024 than they were in 2023.
Despite a rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric in national politics, and the increasing electoral success of the far-right Rassemblement National, the survey shows that ordinary people in France are becoming more tolerant.
'The 2024 index is the third best score for tolerance since measurements began in 1990,' said the CNCDH.
Advertisement
"Over 35 years, the trend has been one of growing acceptance of minorities, over and above cyclical fluctuations (terrorist attacks, economic insecurity, political rhetoric, etc."
Overall, the data shows a steady rise in tolerance since 1990. However the data also shows large annual fluctuations which appear to be linked to current events - for example one of the lowest years on record for tolerance is 2015, the year in which France was hit by repeated Islamist terror attacks.
More recently tolerance had peaked in 2022 before falling in 2023 and then rebounding somewhat in 2024 - a trend that researchers believe is linked to the Hamas attacks on October 7th 2023 and Israel's subsequent campaign against Gaza, in addition to urban riots in France in the summer of 2023 and political debate around the passing of the 2024 Immigration law.
In total 18.9 percent of survey respondents in 2024 identified themselves as 'somewhat' or 'a little' racist - a fall on previous years - although that figure rises to 56 percent among people who describe themselves as 'very right wing' politically.
The survey, conducted by polling organisation Ipsos, takes a representative sample of the French public and asks them to rate whether they would view themselves as racist, then asks their attitudes towards black, Asian, Arab, Roma, Muslim and Jewish people, as well as asking them to evaluate statements such as "there is a hierarchy of races".
They then calculate an overall tolerance index score, which can be measured against previous years.
The rise in tolerance within society can be explained in particular by "higher levels of education, generational renewal and the diversification of the French population", sociologists Yuma Ando, Nonna Mayer and Vincent Tiberj, who are associated with the report,
told France Info
.
Advertisement
The highest index is for the youngest adults, born since 1987 (with a historic score of 81 out of 100), ahead of those born between 1977 and 1986 (69 out of 100, a record for this generation).
However the researchers flagged up a concern that tolerance levels are stagnating or even going backwards among older generations, creating more of a generational divide.
The highest level of discrimination was recorded against Roma people, echoing long-standing prejudice against gypsies and travellers that is seen across Europe.
The report also noted that levels of racist, anti-Semitic or anti-religious crimes remain high - according to the Interior Ministry, recorded hate crimes rose by 11 percent in 2024. Similarly, online reports to the Pharos platform for public incitement to hatred, discrimination, xenophobic insults and defamation jumped by 55 percent.
CNCDH President Jean-Marie Burguburu said: "The increase in racist remarks, offences and crimes is worrying. While racist and anti-Semitic acts have never been so high, the political response seems non-existent."
Earlier this month the anti-terror prosecutors office launched its first investigation into a crime with apparent far-right links, after
a French man shot and killed his Tunisian neighbour
, after posting violent and racist content online.
READ ALSO
:
ANALYSIS: How much of a threat is extreme-right violence in France?✎
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local France
3 hours ago
- Local France
France's Macron says Europeans to 'accelerate negotiations' with Iran
On Friday, British, French, German and EU top diplomats held talks in Geneva with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi a week after Israel started its bombardment. They urged Iran to revive diplomatic efforts with the United States to find a solution in the standoff over its nuclear programme, but Tehran warned it could only consider diplomacy once Israel halted its bombardment. On Saturday, Macron said talks will be stepped up in an effort to avoid greater conflict. "I am convinced that a path exists to end war and avoid even greater dangers," Macron said in English on X after holding phone talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. "To achieve this, we will accelerate the negotiations led by France and its European partners with Iran." Macron reiterated that "Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons." "It is up to Iran to provide full guarantees that its intentions are peaceful," he added. He once again demanded that Iran must release French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been held since May 2022 on espionage charges their families reject. "Their inhumane detention is unjust," Macron said. "I expect them to return to France."
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Protesters slam war profiteering, Israel at French air fair
The long-planned protest at the Paris Air Show outside the French capital also comes as Israel's war with Iran drags on into a ninth day, with Tehran threatening to hit back in force at Israel's offensive against its arch-rival. The presence of Israeli defence firms at the show has already become a bone of contention, with the French government on Monday sealing off the booths of five Israeli firms on the grounds that they were displaying offensive weapons that could be used in Gaza. "Their wars, their profits, our deaths, stop the genocide in Palestine," read the banner at the head of the march, which organisers claimed drew more than 4,000 protesters. "As we speak, people are dying and our governments are not doing anything to stop it," Nora, 29, told AFP at the protest. Draped in a Palestinian flag, the project leader in the pharmaceutical industry said that she felt "rage" at the footage coming out of Gaza, including that of "mothers kissing their dead children" in the besieged Palestinian territory. Police have arrested seven people aiming to disrupt the trade fair, the Paris public prosecutor office said, with officers discovering a helium canister and nearly 200 balloons during the searches. Six of the arrests were made on Friday and the other on Saturday, the prosecutor's office added. Drawing some 100,000 visitors a day, the Paris Air Show at the Le Bourget airfield, nine kilometres (five miles) to the north of the capital, is usually dominated by displays of the aerospace industry's latest cutting-edge planes. But Monday's shuttering of the stands of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, UVision and Elbit, as well as Aeronautics, which make drones and guided bombs and missiles, sparked a row with Israel. Israel's President Isaac Herzog branded Paris's closure of the Israeli firms' booths "outrageous", comparing it to "creating an Israeli ghetto". It came days after Israel, claiming Iran was on the verge of obtaining a nuclear bomb, launched a surprise barrage on June 13 which killed top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists.
France 24
5 hours ago
- France 24
French court upholds life sentence for man linked to jihadist murder of police couple
A French court on Saturday upheld a life sentence for a man convicted for his part in the 2016 killing of a police couple at their home in front of their young child. In 2023, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, a Franco-Moroccan, was found guilty of complicity in the stabbings of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his partner Jessica Schneider by his friend Larossi Abballa in June 2016. Abballa slit 36-year-old Schneider's throat in front of her three-year-old son and then stabbed 42-year-old Salvaing to death outside their home in the town of Magnanville outside Paris. He was shot dead by a police response unit. Abballa claimed the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group in a chilling live video from the scene of the crime broadcast on social media. The killings came amid a wave of attacks in France linked to the Islamic State group and marked the first time that police officers were traced to, and killed, in their homes. On Saturday, the Paris Special Criminal Court found Aberouz, 31, guilty on all counts including complicity in the murder of a person in a position of public authority and participation in a terrorist criminal conspiracy. His lawyers said their client would lodge an appeal with the Court of Cassation. 'Evil will' Vincent Brengarth, one of his lawyers, said Aberouz was "devastated". "The benefit of the doubt was effectively granted to the prosecution, which represents a reversal of a fundamental principle," he said. Schneider's mother praised the ruling. "Justice has been done," Josiane Schneider told reporters. She praised the "very professional court," including the prosecutor. "I got a clear picture of what happened to my daughter. I had my own story in my head, she filled in the gaps and now I have answers." Aberouz has maintained his innocence, saying he was at prayers the night of the attack. He has condemned the attack and insisted that Abballa acted alone. "It was his evil will," Aberouz said in court. "I regret having known him and having been fooled." "I assure you that I have no responsibility for your misfortune," Aberouz said in the courtroom, looking at the families of Schneider and Salvaing. 03:23 According to the prosecutor, the accused was a member of the Islamic State group and present at the scene of the crime on June 13, 2016. The defendant's denials "do not stand up to scrutiny", said prosecutor Naima Rudloff. "The sequence of events confirms that this could only have been done with the help of a second man," added the prosecutor. "Can you imagine a man, in broad daylight, attacking two potentially armed police officers?" Brengarth, one of the lawyers for the accused, had argued for his client's acquittal on the grounds of reasonable doubt, stressing the lack of "concrete evidence" against him. The accused's DNA was found on the victims' computer. His lawyers have claimed his DNA came from Abballa's car.
