The white march in tribute to Nahel, started at 2 p.m. and arrived at the prefecture of Nanterre. Thousands of people advance in the procession which progresses calmly, despite more political slogans. Images.
“Everyone be there please”. The appeal of Nahel’s mother has been heard since the white march in tribute to the teenager brings together several hundred, even several thousand people, according to first estimates. The procession started at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 29, 2023, but two separate gatherings formed. The first left from the meeting point announced by Mounia, Nahel’s mother, and the town hall of Nanterre in a press release, i.e. on avenue Pablo-Picasso to reach the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture, when the second procession gathered immediately in front of the prefecture. The two parades are converging.
Nahel’s mother and family lead the white march aboard a vehicle at the head of the procession. All wear a white T-shirt on which is written “justice for Nahel”. It is this slogan which is inscribed on the banner carried by the demonstrators on foot and which is chanted by the crowd. “We will all be there. We will walk, we will do the route that my son was doing,” said Mounia, overwhelmed with emotion, to the Blast media.
The head of the procession of the white march began arrived in front of the prefecture of Nanterre fear after 3 p.m. Note that the prefecture is next to the court of Nanterre where the policeman who shot Nahel is currently deferred. After reaching the arrival point of the procession, the white march seems to continue a few meters further to reach the place where Nahel was killed.
Although dense, the white march progresses calmly to the prefecture. If in a first video relayed on Tik Tok, Nahel’s mother had presented this march as a means of expressing her “revolt”, she later recalled the peaceful nature of the procession at the microphone of franceinfo. The town hall of Nanterre also recalled that it was a “peaceful demonstration”.
However, in addition to the slogan “justice for Nahel”, many messages chanted by some demonstrators or written on several signs target the police: “Police murder”, “police kill”, “how many Nahel were not filmed?” Some of these messages were heard by the first demonstrators who arrived in front of the Nanterre prefecture. The authorities fear that the white march will be won or parasitized by outbursts after the violence observed in Nanterre during the night and supposed to avenge the death of Nahel.
Will the call for calm issued by the municipality be respected throughout the white march? The emotion of some, in particular anger, was expressed in violent clashes in Nanterre, but more widely in Ile-de-France these last two nights. An anger that the mayor of Nanterre said he understood to Le Monde after the first evening of riots: “In these neighborhoods, there is a shared feeling that justice is not the same for everyone. […] C It’s all this that feeds this frustration that was expressed during the night”. But in a press release published on the morning of June 29, the city councilor called for “calm after a night of unacceptable degradation”. “Let’s stop this destructive spiral. […] Yes, with his family and friends, we want justice for Nahel, we will get it through our peaceful mobilization, with his lawyers in court and with all those who have justice heart,” he added in his statement.
For their part, the inhabitants of the district of Nanterre where Nahel lived believe that these demonstrations and these nocturnal clashes are a way of honoring the deceased teenager. “The white march is for the darons. We, our tribute, is against the police. It’s our way of existing when everything has been taken away from us”, launches a young man to Médiapart.
