The rise in hate crimes also comes amid a surge of popularity for the historically anti-immigration French far right. The National Rally, France’s most popular far-right political party, is on pace for a historic win in the upcoming EU election. Jordan Bardella, the party’s 28-year-old leader, is the second-most popular politician in France, behind only former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe.

“It is quite clear these elections on June 9 are a referendum against being submerged by migrants,” Bardella said at the party’s first campaign rally.

Overall, law enforcement found that 15,000 crimes were committed “based on ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion,” in 2023, up from 12,600 in 2022.

There were 8,800 victims of racist behavior and 4,200 people charged with hate crimes, authorities said. Foreigners of African descent were the most-targeted victims, the report found.

The vast majority of racial offenses consisted of provocations, insults and acts of defamation. These accounted for 61 percent of felonies and misdemeanors and almost all fines.

The report showed that more racist crimes were committed in cities than in suburban or rural areas. Paris and its surroundings saw nearly double the country average of racist crimes.

Denis Leven is hosted at POLITICO under the EU-funded EU4FreeMedia residency program.