Overview

• Thirteen members of the identitarian group Les Natifs appeared before a Paris court on June 4, 2025, accused of public hate speech targeting Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony.
• The protest featured a banner reading “Y a pas moyen Aya, ici c’est Paris, pas le marché de Bamako” displayed on Île Saint-Louis in March 2024 as a derogatory reference to Nakamura’s Malian roots.
• During closing arguments, prosecutors requested penalties from four months suspended to four months in prison, arguing the act constituted incitement to racial hatred.
• Defendants maintained their banner was an exercise of free expression meant to defend French culture and urged judges to acquit them.
• The court will deliver its decision on September 17, 2025, closing a case that has highlighted the persistence of racist and xenophobic ideologies in France.