Overview
- A judicial inquiry in Paris is underway after a 29-year-old guardsman reported racist harassment inside the Garde républicaine, a prestigious unit of the national gendarmerie.
- The soldier filed his complaint on December 17, 2025, one day after receiving an anonymous letter that used a slur about Algerian clothing he wore off duty.
- He describes six years of demeaning comments and pressure from superiors, citing remarks about not wearing a djellaba on base and about Ramadan.
- He also alleges a senior tried to enter his home in his absence and that his wife was questioned with a stereotype suggesting violence was “normal” for “rebeus.”
- The gendarmerie says it enforces zero tolerance through reporting channels and an equality watchdog, as the Paris prosecutor withholds details on the probe’s scope and the soldier’s lawyer and SOS Racisme call the case a sign of deeper institutional failings.