The funeral of Thomas Perotto, the 16-year-old boy who was stabbed to death last Saturday during a village festival in the French department of Drôme, in the southeast of the country, was held yesterday in an atmosphere of great recollection and sadness, but also of strong tension, inside and outside the church where the funeral took place.
The victim’s grandfather spoke at the beginning of the ceremony, held in the Saint-Donat-sur-l’Herbasse collegiate church, to congratulate the police for their speed in arresting the alleged attackers, whom he described as “savages.” “They must be removed from our society as soon as possible.”
The circumstances of the teenager’s death, during a dance in a rural environment that seemed harmless and turned into hell, provoked strong political reactions. The President of the Republic himself, Emmanuel Macron, and his Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, spoke in the Senate. But those who most instrumentalized the events were the leaders of the right and the extreme right, who tried to link the tragedy, even before knowing the results of the investigation, with the lack of integration of sectors of the population of immigrant origin, especially the of Arab and Muslim culture. There were inflammatory statements from figures such as Marion Maréchal – niece of Marine Le Pen –, Éric Zemmour and other leaders of the extreme right. In these circles it is considered proven that the attackers, many from a marginal neighborhood, carried out a premeditated raid and that at least one of them exclaimed that they were there “to kill whites.” There is no certainty that such a phrase was uttered. Despite this, some use it to stoke the fires of resentment and hatred between communities.
