Op-ed · 2026
“The first time”? In Trappes, Macron and the Republic’s short memory
Translated from the French. Original: «La première fois» ? À Trappes, Macron et la mémoire courte de la République · French version
In Trappes, on the evening of the racist attack that killed Pengo Bossio Wangi, Emmanuel Macron spoke of “the first time” a terrorist act had targeted French people for their skin color or their religion. The terrorist attacks in Toulouse, at the Hyper Cacher, in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray and in Nice say otherwise. That same evening, the President issued a written correction, without withdrawing his sentence.
Trappes, a racist attack
On the morning of Friday, October 23, a man fired bursts from his car at passers-by in Trappes, then in La Verrière, west of Paris, for “a short quarter of an hour,” according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. Pengo Bossio Wangi, 26, an amateur MMA fighter from Poissy, was killed. Five people were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl coming home from the swimming pool, wearing a headscarf, who was hit by eight bullets.
The suspect, Kévin T., 39, was arrested in Coignières less than ten minutes after the first calls. France’s national counter-terrorism prosecutors are investigating a terrorist murder committed “because of the real or supposed membership of a so-called race, ethnic group, nation or religion.” The mayor, Ali Rabeh, spoke of an attack that was “probably Islamophobic”; the suspect’s motives have yet to be established. It is a heinous crime, and its victims are owed the compassion of the whole nation.
“The first time”
That evening, at Trappes town hall, Emmanuel Macron opened his statement with these words, filmed by journalist Paul Larrouturou:
“What happened today, I say it, is a turning point, because it is the first time that there has been a terrorist act planned to kill our fellow citizens, our children, because of the color of their skin or the religion people assign to them.”
Yet Emmanuel Macron knows these dead. On October 29, 2020, he stood in front of the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, on the very day of the Islamist attack that had killed three worshippers there. On March 20, 2022, in Toulouse, he read out one by one the names of Mohammed Merah’s victims, including that of Myriam Monsonego, 8 years old.
On March 19, 2012, in Toulouse, Mohammed Merah walks into the courtyard of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school. He shoots dead a teacher, Jonathan Sandler, and his two sons, Arié and Gabriel, then catches a little girl, Myriam Monsonego, and kills her at point-blank range.
On January 9, 2015, two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Amedy Coulibaly takes the customers of the Hyper Cacher at Porte de Vincennes hostage, on a Friday, the eve of Shabbat. He kills Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham, François-Michel Saada and Yoav Hattab. On the phone with BFMTV, he explains that he chose this store to target Jews.
On July 26, 2016, in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, two terrorists claiming allegiance to the Islamic State enter the church during Mass and cut the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, 85.
On October 29, 2020, in Nice, Brahim Aouissaoui walks into the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption basilica armed with a knife. He kills Nadine Devillers, the sacristan Vincent Loquès and Simone Barreto Silva, who manages to flee to a nearby restaurant before dying.
These killers were jihadists, and the President may have been thinking only of far-right racist terrorism. His words made no such distinction: he spoke of “skin color” and “religion.” Myriam Monsonego was eight years old; Father Hamel was saying Mass. Both were killed for who they were, and their killer’s ideology changes nothing.
Raymond Barre, only worse
In the last century, it was Palestinian terrorists who struck the Jews of Paris. On October 3, 1980, a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded outside the synagogue on rue Copernic during the Friday evening service, and four people were killed. That same evening, Prime Minister Raymond Barre denounced on TF1 “this odious attack that meant to strike the Israelites going to the synagogue and that struck innocent French people crossing rue Copernic.” His sentence separated the targeted Jews from the “innocent French people.” It has remained a notorious blunder, despite the words he had a few days later for his “Jewish compatriots.” Two years later, on August 9, 1982, a commando attacked the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on rue des Rosiers with grenades and automatic weapons, killing six people.
Raymond Barre distinguished between the victims, whereas Emmanuel Macron’s sentence erases them. In 1980, the Jews were in the sentence, even if misplaced. In 2026, the dead of Toulouse, the Hyper Cacher, Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray and Nice no longer appear in it.
The written correction
At 10:41 p.m. Paris time, two and a half hours after the video was posted, Emmanuel Macron published a long text on X. The attack, he wrote, “by its proven racist character marks a turning point for our country.” The “first time” was gone, and he added:
“I also want to recall an essential truth and avoid any controversy: in recent years, our country has suffered attacks that struck Christians because they were Christians and Jews because they were Jews. None of these victims must be forgotten. No grief must be ranked.”
Emmanuel Macron@EmmanuelMacron𝕏Ce soir, la Nation est en deuil après l'attentat terroriste qui a frappé Trappes et La Verrière.
Nous sommes confrontés à un acte d'une gravité extrême et qui par son caractère raciste avéré marque un tournant pour notre pays.
Monsieur Pengo Bossio Wangi a perdu la vie. Cinq autres personnes sont en urgence absolue, dont une petite fille qui lutte pour survivre. Nous pensons à chacune et chacun d'entre eux, à leurs proches, à leurs familles. Nous leur devons le soutien, l'affection et la solidarité de toute la Nation.
Ce qui s'est passé aujourd'hui nous oblige. J'ai redit ce soir le soutien de la Nation à toutes les victimes et à leurs familles. J'ai également rappelé notre détermination absolue à poursuivre le combat contre le racisme, sous toutes ses formes.
Je veux aussi rappeler une vérité essentielle et éviter toute polémique : notre pays a connu, ces dernières années, des attentats qui ont frappé des chrétiens parce qu'ils étaient chrétiens et des juifs parce qu'ils étaient juifs. Aucune de ces victimes ne doit être oubliée. Aucune douleur ne doit être hiérarchisée. Et je veux que rien, ce soir, ne vienne ajouter à la peine des familles, à la tristesse du pays et au recueillement de la nation.
Notre combat est celui de l'universalisme, celui de la République, celui de notre unité et de notre cohésion. Il n'y a rien de plus important ce soir.
Une France unie qui pleure ses enfants, qui accompagne les victimes et leurs proches.
Une France qui combat le racisme, l'antisémitisme et toutes les formes de haine et de persécution fondées sur la religion ou la couleur de peau.
C'est cette France que nous devons défendre. C'est pour son unité, pour la sécurité de chacune et de chacun, et pour les valeurs qui nous rassemblent que je me battrai jusqu'au bout.
The President thus acknowledges in writing what his sentence denied, and that matters. But he does not withdraw his words and names none of these attacks, filed under “in recent years.” He presents the clarification as a way to “avoid any controversy,” and the “turning point” remains, even though Jews and Christians have already been killed in France for their religion.
One memory
The Jews of France often feel that their dead do not count in quite the same way: when an Islamist kills Jews, the word terrorism covers everything, and hatred of Jews fades into the background. Since Toulouse, their schools have lived under protection, and since January 2015, with Operation Sentinelle, soldiers have stood guard outside Jewish schools and synagogues.
Recognizing the racist nature of the Trappes attack does not require forgetting Toulouse. Pengo Bossio Wangi and the wounded girl are owed the same memory and the same protection as the victims of the attacks that came before. Protecting all its citizens, whatever their origins or their faith, is also the promise and the duty of the French Republic.