Who are the Natives, these far-right identitarians tried for a racist banner targeting Aya Nakamura?
Published on , updated on
Singer Aya Nakamura performs at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Paris Olympics in Paris, France, on July 26, 2025. POOL / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
Decryption: Thirteen people linked to this far-right group, which had made racist insults against singer Aya Nakamura, are being tried this Wednesday. They had unfurled a banner reading: "There's no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market."
On March 9, 2024, after the mention of Aya Nakamura's participation in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games , the far-right group Les Natifs posted a photo of a racist banner on its social networks. "There's no way Aya, this is Paris, not the Bamako market!", it read, the expression "There's no way" referring to the singer's hit , "Djadja".
The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra), SOS Racisme, and the Representative Council of Black Associations of France had reported racist publications to the Paris prosecutor's office. Aya Nakamura had also filed a complaint.
Thirteen people will be tried this Wednesday, June 4, for "public insult based on alleged origin , ethnicity, race or religion" and "public incitement to discrimination based on alleged origin, ethnicity, race or religion."
Also read
Investigation Investigation into this far-right group that dreams of overthrowing the Republic
"There's no way Aya, this is Paris, not Kinshasa!" was originally supposed to be written on the banner, unfurled by a dozen members of the far-right group on the banks of the Seine on March 9, 2024, until one of the activists warned: "She's Malian, eh, not Congolese..." However, Bamako, the capital of Mali, does not rhyme with Aya. "But we can leave it: she's black, you know! After all, we're racist, so we don't care," his accomplice replied, in an exchange revealed by Mediapart . "We serve a cause that's bigger than us," Marie, 22, justified to AFP last April, while Stanislas, 24, invoked "freedom of expression" and challenged anyone to "prove" any "racist" message.
• A group inheriting from Génération IdentitaireTribute to Jean-Marie Le Pen , anti-immigrant actions, self-defense courses… The far-right group Les Natifs is an heir in Paris to Génération Identitaire (GI). The fifty or so young active activists claim a community life, between reading circles, sport – English boxing in particular – and political action, and an identity that is at once “Parisian, French and European” , with a “right-wing” anchorage; they called for voting for either Eric Zemmour or Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election. Among them, Gabriel, 25, presented to the AFP in April a movement with a triple identity: “civilizational, European; national, French; and local regional, Paris” .
Also read
Far Right Interview : "Talking about civil war means subscribing to their vision," according to sociologist Emmanuel Casajus
