PARIS — French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is taking heat for what critics say was a slow response to the killing of a man who appeared to be targeted for his Muslim faith.
Aboubakar Cissé, a 23-year-old Malian, died after being stabbed dozens of times on Friday while worshiping at a mosque in southern France. The local prosecutor said that the attacker had filmed the stabbing, during which he shouted “I did it … your shitty Allah,” multiple French media outlets reported.
Retailleau, a popular right-wing politician who is running to lead France’s conservative political party Les Républicains, responded on X about six hours hours later to express “solidarity with the Muslim community.”
He attended two campaign events over the weekend and only then traveled to meet with local investigators and religious leaders in La Grande-Combe on Sunday.
Retailleau has been quicker to visit the sites of other violent attacks after they occurred. Less than a day before Friday’s mosque attack in La Grande-Combe, for example, he went to Nantes after a high school student fatally stabbed a 15-year-old classmate and wounded others. That attack took place around noon; Retailleau was on site within seven hours.
The interior minister defended his delayed visit to the site of the attack on the Muslim man by citing the ongoing investigation and lingering uncertainties surrounding the case. On Tuesday, he hit back at those criticizing him for turning tragedies into political grist.
“I do not accept that such serious and painful issues should be exploited by parties or associations that profit from a family’s misfortune. These methods are shameful, and I will not allow myself to be intimidated or exploited,” he said on X.
The minister’s critics, however, say the lack of urgency points to a double-standard — a claim that government spokesperson Sophie Primas tried to bat down at a press conference on Monday — especially considering how quickly Retailleau traveled to the scene during a recent stabbing that President Emmanuel Macron had described as an act of “Islamist terrorism.”
That stabbing, which was committed by an Algerian national who was described as having a “schizophrenic profile,” took place at 3:40 p.m. The interior minister’s trip to the site of the attack was confirmed less than two hours later.
“When you see the time it took for the Interior Minister to respond … it gives the impression that French people of the Muslim faith have no place in our country,” said Ludovic Mendes, a National Assembly member from Macron’s centrist group who recently authored a report on Islamophobia in France.
Retailleau’s detractors add that his fiery remarks criticizing Muslim headscarves — he shouted “down with the veil” at a recent rally — fuel what Mendes describes as “ordinary racism” in France at a time when official statistics show that anti-Muslim hate crimes are rising. Reports of such incidents were up 72 percent from January through March this year compared with the same period in 2024, according to interior ministry figures.
Retailleau also was criticized from within his own political camp. Xavier Bertrand, the conservative president of the northern Hauts-de-France region and a supporter of Retailleau’s party leadership run, told BFMTV he was “firmly convinced” that the interior minister should have visited the attack site “straight away.”
“When a man is savagely murdered in France because he is a Muslim, we have to fight that … our outrage cannot depend on the circumstances,” Bertrand said.
The suspected attacker fled the scene and remained at large for three days before surrendering to authorities in Italy on Monday. Prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini said that while hate was considered the most likely motive, other scenarios are still being examined.
The assailant’s lawyer, speaking to reporters in Italy, said his client had not “said anything against Islam or Mosque” and was “confused” by the accusation that his acts were motivated by hate.
Elena Giordano contributed to this report.
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