March for Nahel Merzouk a year after his killing by French police

Honourary rally comes a day before France heads to the polls in the first round of the snap elections with racism taking centrestage in the vote.

A year after a French teenager with North African roots was killed by a policeman, his mother led a march to pay homage to her son that ended at the scene where he was gunned down without provocation.

Several hundred family members, friends, and supporters gathered in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Saturday to remember Nahel Merzouk, 17, who was shot dead at point-blank range by a police officer at a traffic stop on June 27, 2023 – a killing that sparked shock and days of rioting across France.

His mother, Mounia, spoke to the crowd, then broke away in tears. Friends wore white T-shirts with Merzouk’s photo and residents of his housing project held a banner reading “Justice for Nahel”.

The march ended at the spot where he was killed and an imam sang and read a prayer. While there was no visible police presence, organisers recruited guards to ensure security for the event.

The procession came at a politically fraught time when hate speech blights campaigning for snap parliamentary elections on Sunday. And when an anti-immigration party – that wants to boost police powers to use their weapons and has historical ties to racism and anti-Semitism – is leading in the polls.