Racist crimes in France have increased sharply in 2023. Nationwide farmers’ protests in Poland and the Czech Republic

In France, significantly more racist crimes were registered last year than the year before. With around 8,500 crimes and crimes, the number rose by 32 percent, the Ministry of the Interior in Paris announced on Wednesday. In addition, there were approximately 6,400 racist offenses last year.

Usually people were racially insulted, provoked or slandered. There were also death threats and blackmail. Physical violence and assaults are less common, but the number of cases has also increased in the past year.

The French Ministry of the Interior counts in its statistics all reported crimes against a person’s ethnic group, nation or religion. According to the ministry, attacks increased especially at the end of the year. The increase can be observed from October, in a context of high tensions in the Middle East.

According to the ministry, last year mainly people from African countries were affected by racist acts. Although they made up only four percent of the total population, they made up eleven percent of the victims of racist attacks. Men and people between the ages of 25 and 54 were also attacked disproportionately.

However, the ministry refers to a study that shows that only a fraction of all victims of racist violence even report the incident. In 2021 that was only 4 percent. According to the ministry, there are more women and more people with French nationality among suspects of racist acts than among suspects of all crimes.

The ministry has not provided any information about possible racist behavior by the police. In the past, individual incidents had caused horror in France. There were repeated demonstrations against alleged racist police brutality. (rbu/sda/dpa)