French MP receives racist death threat

Laetitia Avia has filed a complaint with French police over a threatening, racist letter.

Laetitia Avia, pictured during an appearance on French television, has denounced the racist attack.

Laetitia Avia, pictured during an appearance on French television, has denounced the racist attack. Source: Laetitia Avia Twitter

A French MP elected under President Emmanuel Macron's party revealed on Wednesday she had received a letter containing racist death threats.

The letter, published on her Twitter account, ended with the words "count your days, we are going to take care of you."

The letter also referred to the MP as a "black swine from Africa" and said "your media appearances make us sick", according to a translation by the BBC.

Laetitia Avia, from Macron's Republique En Marche (Republic On The Move) party, said she had filed a complaint with police in Paris.

"I have never been attacked with such racism. And I've been threatened with death. We cannot let this happen," the MP, whose family are of Togolese origin, told AFP.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Twitter he was "outraged by the hateful racist attack".
It comes days after the announcement that a mixed-race teenager was the to play national heroine Joan of Arc for the first time in the French city of Orleans prompted a torrent of racist abuse online.

The 17-year-old, whose father is from Benin and whose mother is Polish, is set to ride horseback through the central city dressed in armour for an annual spring celebration dating back nearly six centuries.


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2 min read
Published 1 March 2018 1:09pm
Updated 1 March 2018 1:11pm
Source: AFP, SBS


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